By José Pedro Martins

Lula´s government promotes genetically-modified organisms despite social
opposition.

Brazil is home to one of the world´s largest areas of genetically-modified
seed cultivations with 15 million hectares in 2007. The greatest increase of
these crops occurred under the government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da
Silva, despite growing opposition from Brazilian farmers and
environmentalists.

Brazil is expected to surpass its soy-producing neighbor, Argentina in area
of cultivated transgenic seeds, to become the world?s second largest
producer this year, according to the International Service for the
Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA), a non-profit organization.

The United States ranks first for genetically-modified seed cultivation with
57.7 million hectares in 2007, half the world´s transgenic farmland.

Between 2006 and 2007, the growth of genetically-modified seed cultivation
in Brazil was greater than the increase in the United States. Brazil had
sown 3.5 million hectares of GMOs, equivalent of 30 percent of its GMO
farmland, compared with 3.1 million hectares´ increase in the United States.

ISAAA says the expansion of GMO farming in Brazil between 2006 and 2007 was
only less than in India, where the GMO area increased from 3.8 million
hectares to 6.2 million hectares, or 63 percent.

Transgenic boom
More genetically-modified products have been authorized under Lula´s
administration than any other government. The first was transgenic soy by
agricultural giant Monsanto, which entered the country in 1998 under the
1994-2002 government of President Fernando Henrique Cardoso.

The other authorizations mostly took place under Lula, when the National
Biosafety Technical Commission, or CTNBio, was reorganized. The CNTbio was
once the seat of strong opposition to transgenics, but gradually changed its
stance, and in 2008 alone, approved seven of 12 licenses approvals since it
began working 10 years ago.

?The CTNBio has authorized transgenics in a worrying manner for the health
of the population and the Brazilian environment,? says Mohamed Habib, head
of the Community Affairs Department of the State University of Campinas, and
one of Brazil?s staunchest critics of GMOs.

The first change within the CTNBio dates back to March 2007, when it lowered
the commission´s quorum requirements for votes on genetically-modified
products.

But it did not come without opposition.

In October 2007, the National Sanitary Surveillance Agency and the Brazilian
Environment and Renewable Resources Institute, or IBAMA, a branch of the
Environment Ministry, sought to block the approval of transgenic corn MON
810 by Monsanto at the Biosecurity Council, an inter-ministerial body.

They argued that the approval of MON810 for commercial use in Spain,
Argentina and the United States, and other countries, had caused the
contamination of conventional corn varieties with genetically-modified corn
and led to social and economic problems.

?The lack of segregation, identification and effective procedures led to the
contamination of conventional varieties with transgenic varieties,? they
said.

But the Biosecurity Council, voted in favor to authorize this corn in
February of this year, regardless.

Biodiversity and health risks
According to the Advisors and Services for Alternative Agriculture
organization, or AS-PTA, MON 810 poses a list of 10 problems, including the
fact that the Brazilian government did not carry out environmental studies
to figure out whether there were any possible risks to the country´s
ecosystems should the seeds be sold in the country.

Habib says the Brazilian government, and the CTNBio in particular, are not
taking precautions that are recommended by scientists and environmentalists
around the world.

?The path they are taking is mistaken and dangerous, exactly what happened
with the agrotoxins that were presented as the solution for farming, and are
today recognizably harmful,? Habib says. ?The use of agrotoxins has even
increased with the use of transgenics, unlike what its defenders´ say.?

According to IBAMA, between 2000 and 2004, the use of glyphosate, an
agrotoxin used widely for transgenic soy, increased by 95 percent in Brazil,
as the area of soy grown jumped by over 71 percent. In the state of Rio
Grande do Sul, home to the country´s largest area of transgenic soy,
glyphosate use increased 162 percent and the area grown by 38 percent.

In May, Sen. Marina Silva left the Environment Ministry she headed since
2003, sparking speculations that her departure was related to a series of
disputes with Lula, including on the authorization to transgenic seeds.

The same day she left her post, Lula was being denounced in Bonn, Germany,
during a meeting of Cartagena Protocol´s members, by six civil society
organizations from Brazil. A report signed by Greenpeace, AS-PTA, Tierra de
Derechos, The Organic Agriculture Association, the Brazilian Consumer
Defense Organization and the National Association of Small Farmers said that
Lula´s government had not implemented measures to avoid threats to
biodiversity by failing to demand studies on the impact of transgenic corn
on the country?s health and environment.

In June, a month after Silva´s departure, the Biosecurity Council again met
to discuss a new request to ban transgenic corn. The government granted
CTNBio the power to rule on whether to allow transgenic products. Shortly
afterward, its members approved transgenic LibertyLink cotton from Bayer
CropScience and transgenic corn varieties from Syngenta and Monsanto.

Defenders of transgenics are also present in Brazil´s legislature.

On Oct. 16, on World Food Day, Dep. Luis Carlos Heinze, of the GMO
soy-producer Rio Grande do Sul state, presented a bill in Congress about the
labeling of genetically-modified products in Brazil.

The current law states that all products with more than 1 percent
genetically-modified components must be labeled. A ?T? is printed within a
yellow triangle T to indicate ?transgenic? ingredients. According to Heinze?s
project, the symbol would be removed.
www.checkbiotech.org