Ecobreves – BRAZIL: Behind Soybeans Comes Transgenic Cotton

By IPS Correspondents and - - Reprint | | Print |

RIO DE JANEIRO, Nov 29 2004 (IPS) - Brazil is experiencing new transgenic confusion. Environmentalists and the Environment Ministry challenge the National Biosecurity Technical Commission's decision to authorize sales of cottonseed that contains no more than one percent genetically modified seeds. The measure, requested by seed producers, recognizes existing contamination with genetically modified seed and aims to avoid the loss of control that occurred with soybeans, said the commission's secretary-general Jairon do Nascimento.

But the Environment Ministry's biodiversity secretary, Joao Paulo Capobianco, said authorization is ''irresponsible'' because its potential environmental consequences have not been studied.

Approval was granted ''without legal or technical basis'' because the commission ''doesn't have the legal jurisdiction'' to do so, says Sezifredo Paz, coordinator of the Brazilian Consumer Defense Institute.

Furthermore, he said, it was based on a legal ruling that was suspended at the Institute's request, which for the past six years has been fighting the commercial cultivation of transgenic soybeans.