www.checkbiotech.org ; www.raupp.info ; www.czu.cz

In Brazil, cotton is following in soy's footsteps. Transgenic cotton
varieties, smuggled into the country in recent years, may now be legalised
by a draft law already quietly approved by the lower house of Congress,
December 2006 by Mario Osava.

Now the draft law will go to the Senate, where it is almost certain that
it will be passed, because there is an even more overwhelming majority in
favour of genetically modified (GM) crops, according to Jean Marc von der
Weid, coordinator of Advice and Services for Alternative Agriculture
Projects (AS-PTA), a non-governmental organisation active in the cause "For
a GM-free Brazil".

The Chamber of Deputies was actually supposed to be debating the signing
into law of a "provisional measure", which is a presidential decree with
force of law that depends on congressional approval to remain in effect
after the first three months.

The provisional measure in question established rules to protect natural
conservation areas from the risk of transgenic contamination, by
establishing a safety perimeter separating transgenic crops from forest and
biodiversity reserves. But in fact it cut the minimum distance between GM
crops and conservation areas from 10 kilometres to 500 metres.

During the debate to convert the provisional measure into law, the bill's
sponsor, Deputy Paulo Pimenta of the governing Workers Party (PT),
introduced two new provisions.

The first amendment legalised GM cotton grown illegally in Brazil.

The other addition affects the working statutes of the National Technical
Commission on Biosafety (CTNBio). At present, approval of the use of GM
crops in Brazil requires a two-thirds majority, or 18 out of the 27 members
of CTNBio. The amendment relaxed the requirement for approval to a simple
majority, that is 14 out of 27 members. This will make approval of
transgenic crops in Brazil much easier.

The changes are due to pressure from researchers and agribusiness
associations, which has intensified in the last month, after a meeting of
CTNBio failed to authorise the importing and sale of a transgenic vaccine
against Aujeszky's disease, which affects pigs, although 17 members voted in
favour and only four against.

The amendments proposed by Pimenta were approved last Wednesday by 247
deputies. There were 103 votes against, mainly from PT deputies together
with members of small leftist parties.

It will be the Senate's turn to examine the issue in February, after the
two-month congressional recess.

Reducing the required majority for CNTBio decisions is part of "a process of
intimidation" of those of its members who oppose freer use of transgenics
and want policies that ensure biosafety, von der Weid told IPS. "They want
to expel them from the commission," he said.

In his opinion, the change will have little practical effect, since CNTBio
already has a majority of members who are scientists interested in GM
research, and whose research projects are approved without difficulty.

But before commercial cultivation of GM crop varieties are approved, CNTBio
will have to define the criteria for risk assessment, and that is what is
delaying their authorisation, rather than any difficulty in obtaining a
two-thirds majority.

Besides, the new rule for CNTBio decisions is "irrelevant" given the policy
of acceptance -- as a fait accompli -- of the illegal introduction of
transgenic varieties into the country, which are simply legalised after the
fact by Congress, von der Weid said.

The story of GM soy, modified by U.S. biotech giant Monsanto to create
resistance to its own herbicide, Roundup Ready (RR), is similar. About ten
years ago, the Monsanto seeds were smuggled into the south of Brazil from
Argentina, and are now the predominant soy crop in the state of Rio Grande
do Sul which borders on Argentina.

Given the de facto situation, the administration of Luiz Inácio Lula da
Silva decided to legalise the crop by means of successive provisional
measures, beginning in 2003, until Congress finally approved a new Biosafety
Law in 2005. A large part of the soy produced in central, western and
southern Brazil is now transgenic.

Opponents to GM cotton and maize point out that these crops are a greater
contamination risk than soy because there are native species of cotton and
maize, but not soy, in Brazil. Cotton grown from transgenic seeds is
estimated to cover 150,000 hectares.

The decision in the Chamber of Deputies is "a step backwards" for biosafety
policy, and sends "a very negative signal," indicating that laws may be
broken and nothing will happen except the post hoc passage of a measure to
wipe out the crime, the activist said.

The movement "For a GM-free Brazil" will attempt to block the draft law in
the Senate, but here the balance of forces is even more unfavourable to
their goal, as many senators have links with agribusiness and stock raising.

But legal action will also be brought "against the illegal decision by the
Chamber of Deputies, which passed a bill that broke laws" that had been
previously approved, said von der Weid. Action will be taken against the
Ministry of Agriculture, he added.

The ministry was "in collusion" with farmers when it failed to destroy
illegally grown transgenic cotton, and neglected due diligence by failing
properly to inspect the crops, he said.

[www.ipsnews.net]

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