Ecobreves – BRAZIL: People's Trial on Transgenics

By IPS Correspondents and - - Reprint | | Print |

RIO DE JANEIRO, Mar 6 2004 (IPS) - An International People's Tribunal on Transgenics held sessions in the southern Brazilian city of Porto Alegre on Mar. 11, finding genetically modified soy “guilty”. Although the trial was informal, it was presided by a real judge, José Felipe Ledur of Brazil.

The accused — the U.S. biotech giant Monsanto, which holds the patent to the genetically engineered RoundUp Ready (RR) soy, and the Federation of Agriculture of the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul — were found ''guilty of illegally disseminating transgenic seeds.''

They ''endangered the environment, biodiversity, human health, the country's agricultural genetic wealth, and the Brazilian economy,'' according to the final ruling.

The sentence — which is non-binding — also states that not enough research has been carried out yet to ensure that transgenic crops and food pose no environmental or health risks.

Genetically modified soy now accounts for 80 percent of all soy planted in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, and has spread to other parts of the country, reflecting the failure of authorities to enforce the existing ban.