SUNS 4506 Monday 13 September 1999

Environment: Diverse views within Mercosur on GM-seeds



Montevideo, Sep 7 (IPS/Daniel Gatti and Gustavo Gonzalez) -- Member countries of the Southern Common Market (Mercosur), as well as its associate members, are far from reconciling their positions on the cultivation of genetically modified food crops.

Mercosur, which is made up of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, is home to policies that limit or even ban the production of genetically modified (GM) crops, as well as others that encourage their use.

Genetic modification is a process in which some of the genes of one organism are inserted into another, using a virus or bacteria as a carrier. The changes for certain traits, such as higher yields, are selected for reproduction.

The genetic manipulation may involve the combination of animal genes with plant genes in order to alter the seeds, generally of corn and soy, to permit changes in the foods derived from these products.

According to critics, genetically modified products can produce allergies, resistance to antibiotics, viral infections and even cancer in some people.

The environmental organisation, GRAIN, states that South American governments "redirected their economies toward the export of GM products as a key to growth," and have become "the latest opportunity for agro-industrial transnationals that are encountering obstacles to their expansion in North America and
Europe."

"The massive flow of dollars has made (South American) governments insensitive to the obvious environmental and social costs, and, in the long term, the risks for safe food supplies" caused by GM organisms, argues GRAIN.

Within Mercosur, the most contradictory situation is in Brazil, where the federal government authorised the marketing of several types of genetically modified seeds, while the judiciary passed a resolution covering the entire nation that prohibits the release of GM soy into the environment.

The legal measure was decided after legal claims were made by Brazil's Consumer Institute and by the Brazilian branch of the international environmental organisation Greenpeace. The decision particularly affects the interests of the transnational corporation Monsanto.

The state of Rio Grande do Sul, which is an economic leader in its agricultural production and where soy is one of the principal crops, leads the opposition in Brazil against GMs. In March the state banned the use of GM products within its territory.

The state legislature is currently considering a bill that would declare Rio Grande do Sul a permanent "GM free zone."

In August, more than 2,000 people participated in a meeting of several citizen organisations in Porto Alegre, the state's capital. The meeting culminated with the adoption of the "Rio Grande do Sul Charter" and a street demonstration against genetically altered organisms.

The Charter was approved by groups such as the Landless Rural Workers Movement, trade unions, professional associations, and groups of ecologists, Catholics, farmers, as well as research centres and women's movements.

Citing "hundreds of scientific and experimental documents," the text maintains that the GMs "are a threat and a risk to human health and to food safety, as well as being transgressors against nature's harmonic processes."

The Charter also states that the production and businesses arising from research linked to GMs in agriculture "are in the hands of a small group of transnational companies."

These companies merge and "take control over fundamental areas in the survival of humanity and of the species in general, the processing and distribution of food, petrochemicals and other chemicals," states the document.

The Charter's signatories demand that the federal, state and municipal governments immediately suspend any action that legalises the production and marketing of GM foods, whether nationally produced or imported, as well as freeing up resources to clarify this new technology's risks.

They also demand a public investigation and, in accordance with ethical principles, a study of the process's social, economic and environmental sustainability, "oriented toward the solution for the majority, and not to increase the concentration and dependence."

In Paraguay, a Bio-Safety Commission of experts, citizen organisations and parliamentarians designated by the government recommended that the executive office declare the nation "free of genetically modified organisms."

Soy is Paraguay's primary agricultural product and the commission's pronouncement would be a serious obstacle for the transnationals' plans for GM products, indicated the citizen organisations.

Argentina and Uruguay, for their part, have not yet taken real steps towards openly debating the issue.

Since Argentina opened the doors for the cultivation of modified soybeans in 1996, the nation has become the world's second largest producer of GM soy, with four million hectares in production.

The Bio-Safety Commission created by Carlos Menem's government to study the issue has been harshly criticised by environmental groups due to the heavy participation of representatives from the industrial sector and the absence of ecologists, consumer advocates and agricultural representatives.

In Uruguay, several experimental sites have been authorised, primarily for GM corn and soy varieties.

A governmental Risk Evaluation Commission includes the technical advice of just four experts, and has not allowed the participation of Uruguayan civil organisations.

In Chile, an associate member of Mercosur, environmental and consumer organisations charge the government with allowing GM cultivation to increase and permitting the sales of GM foods without implementing appropriate safety measures.

The Sustainable Chile Foundation released a report last week indicating that "the surface area planted with GM products grew four-fold between 1997 and 1998, from 7,152 hectares to 28,541 hectares."

The Chilean government claims that it has based its position on the defence of free trade and that GM foods are not sold within the country, but seeds cultivated in Chile are exported to North America.

The Sustainable Chile Foundation maintained there are still risks because the GM seeds are not grown in quarantine, which implies "an imminent risk of biological contamination of nearby crops and weeds."

The foundation and the Conscientious Consumer's League claim that "genetically modified corn not used for seed is being used to feed pigs and chickens," representing unknown risks to Chileans who eat meat that is potentially contaminated with modified genes.