The FAO e-mail conference entitled "Public participation in decision-making regarding GMOs in developing countries: How to effectively involve rural people" began on 17 January and finished on 13 February 2005.

Over 500 people subscribed to this moderated conference and 116 messages were posted, from 70 people living in 35 different countries. Half of the messages posted were from people in developing countries.

The wide range of issues raised included e.g. the need for relevant and reliable information; whether and why the public (rural or not) should be involved in decision-making regarding GMOs and, assuming they should, how they could be effectively involved (including topics such as appropriate media and communication strategies, local languages, who should pay, indigenous peoples, international agreements/guidelines etc.).

The messages are available at http://www.fao.org/biotech/logs/c12logs.htm or can be requested as a single e-mail (size 200 KB) from biotech-admin@fao.org.