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When a new Workers
Party government came into power in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande
do Sul (RS) last January, one its first actions was to declare its
opposition to transgenic crops. The new government acted urgently
in the face of actions being taken by the Federal government and
biotechnology transnationals to bring the country's industrial agricultural
sector under the cultivation of transgenic crops, particularly pesticide-
and insect-resistant genetical ly-mod ified soybeans and corn. Brazil
is the world's number two producer of soybeans (31 million tons
in 1998), 20% of which is grown in RS. The state government has
declared its initiative "a matter of state policy" and
acted on the growing scientific evidence that genetically-modified
(GM) crops may pose serious and uncontrollable effects over health
and the environment. As the issue developed, it also became clear
that RS - and the rest of Brazil, for that matter -could suffer
important trade losses by switching over to transgenic crops.
The government's first step was to implement a
state law of 1991 through a local bill which regulates field trials
of GM crops. The department of agriculture has seized -and sometimes
destroyed - non-complying transgenic crops, including a 432 ha soybean
field owned by Monsoy, a Monsanto subsidiary. The state has also
been acting against farmers who have been sowing GM seeds illegally
smuggled from nearby Argentina, which has wholeheartedly embraced
transgenic crops. Rio Grande do Sul has had to face up to Brazilian
Federal authorities, including EMBRAPA, the national agricultural
research agency, and CNTBio, the federal biosafety agency, and is
also dealing with fierce multinational-led opposition. At the same
time civil society organisations - consumers, environmentalists,
landless rural workers, some farmers' unions - have come together
to back the state government initiative.
As Seedling goes to press, pressure is buidling
up in two opposing directions around RS initiative. On the one hand,
consumer opposition in Europe has grown to the point where many
major supermarkets, fast-food chains and food companies are shunning
GM products. As a result, major corn. and soy traders in the US
are looking for non-GM sources of crops. Wholesale buyers have already
been contracting RS soybeans, and an RS delegation visiting Europe
in May had an warm reception from traders.
Meanwhile - even though a majority of state agricultural
authorities have called for a moratorium on GMO releases - federal
authorities have recently authorised the sale of transgenic seeds
in seven Brazilian states, including RS. Luckily, since RS has a
State Decree requiring environmental impact assessments for GM crops,
which have not been done by the companies involved, they have been
able to stop their release so far NGOs are also challenging the
Federal decision to release GM seeds.
For more information contact: Ms Angela Felippi,
EMATER (Rio Grande do Sul's extension agency).
Email: [email protected]
Internet: http://www.emater.tche.br
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