Ecobreves – ARGENTINA: Criticisms Raised Against Official Pro-Biotech Stance

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BUENOS AIRES, Apr 8 2006 (IPS) - The Rural Reflection Group (GRR) in Argentina has criticized its government for defending the dominant model for producing genetically modified soybeans and maintaining positions in line with the biotechnology corporations, during the biodiversity summit that ended Mar. 31 in the southern Brazilian city of Curitiba. Against the stance of the biotech industry, the 8th Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity maintained a moratorium on the so-called genetic use restriction technologies (GURT), in force since 2000, and which activists say produce sterile or “terminator” seeds.

GRR president Jorge Rulli told Tierramérica it was “scandalous” how Argentina and Paraguay defended the policies of the corporations that sell genetically modified seeds.

This rural and environmental organization challenges the intensive farming of soybeans because of its negative impacts on biodiversity, the accelerated concentration of landownership, and the increase in rural poverty.