###########################
Update from the GM-Free Brazil Campaign
###########################

Brazil, Rio de Janeiro, March 29, 2007


Greetings from Brazil!

As of March 2007, the GM-Free Brazil Campaign is resuming its monthly newsletter in English. We hope the information will be useful to our partners abroad and facilitate international support actions when needed.

In this first issue we discuss the three most important events in the country this month: a public hearing to debate the commercial release of GM maize, President Lula’s signing into law of a lower quorum for GM authorizations and the CTNBio’s attempt to block the public participation at its meetings.


The GM maize public hearing

At the public hearing held last week by the National Technical Biosafety Commission (CTNBio) to discuss the commercial release of several types of transgenic maize in Brazil it was clear that there is no safe basis for GM approvals in the country.

Presentations by biotech industry representatives were superficial and rife with generic, unsubstantiated assertions, just like what we read everyday in the papers: “GMOs have been tested more than any other food and hence are safe,” “GMOs produce higher yields and consume less pesticides,” and “GMOs have been approved for growing in the USA and Argentina and therefore can also be released in Brazil.”

The only novelty presented by industry, actually its new propaganda element, argues that GMO crops can significantly reduce CO2 emissions. But, like the other claims, not one study was presented to substantiate this assertion.

The CTNBio hand-picked the scientists who would have 15 minutes each at the hearing to present their views on the impacts of the transgenic maize. They all spoke in unison with the official industry spokespersons. In order to feed the myth that scientists are for and environmentalists are against GMOs, the CTNBio refused to allow any critical scientist who had signed up in advance to speak at the event.

Despite that filter, civil society representatives who spoke did raise several questions that went unanswered and presented resounding critiques of the technical arguments used to support the GM maize approval. They also pointed out errors and omissions in applications submitted to CTNBio, the total absence of any environmental impact assessment for Brazilian ecological conditions and the lack of any post-release control measures.

Biotech researchers moved by the dogmatic conviction that genes alone program organisms, avoided engaging in debate and did not counter the information and studies presented by civil-society organizations showing that GMOs are inherently unsafe and unstable and that no coexistence with conventional crops is possible.

Actually, the public hearing was only called after a judge in the State of Paraná made it mandatory, in response to a lawsuit filed by civil society organizations (AS-PTA - agroecology; Terra de Direitos - human rights; Idec - consumers; and MPA/Via Campesina - small farmers). Although the current biosafety law’s case-by-case approach implies that one transgenic event should be examined at each public hearing, CTNBio chairman Walter Colli drew up an agenda to cover all seven pending applications for GM maize, even those that had never been analyzed by the Commission.

Thus the hearing originally required by the court to debate only Bayer’s Liberty Link corn, also opened room for six of Monsanto’s, Syngenta’s and Pioneer’s GM corn events, some of them insect-resistant, some herbicide-tolerant and some “stacked”. Colli said it would be better to cover everything at one hearing because “it’s all maize” and in any case he lives in São Paulo and would rather not have to go to Brasilia more than once a month.

Absence of studies

Bayer’s Liberty Link maize (genetically designed to be packaged with Bayer’s own gluphosinate ammonium herbicide) is at the top of the CTNBio’s agenda of commercial release applications. Bayer’s representative at the hearing was challenged to identify the pages containing environmental studies in the material the company submitted to CTNBio.

It was Jairon do Nascimento, the CTNBio’s executive secretary, who answered, however, recognizing that no one had brought the whole file to the meeting. There was silence, since Bayer in fact has no study carried out under Brazilian ecological conditions to show. Even so, the CTNBio sees no problem in approving Bayer’s GM corn.

Even one of the most conservative and pro-GMO newspapers in the country stated that “after all the presentations for and against, the CTNBio’s president showed his irritation and threatened to suspend the participation of those who from the floor were raising questions and criticizing the absence of conclusive studies on the plants.”

Embrapa, the federal agricultural research system, which has partnerships with Monsanto and other transnationals to develop transgenic crops, presented its own pro-GM position but set some conditions for the release of GM maize. They include risk assessments for Brazilian conditions and the development of technical recommendations to allow the co-existence of different types of agriculture (conventional, transgenics, organic and agro-ecological). None of Embrapa’s conditions have ever been met.

More changes to the biosafety law

The day after the hearing, president Lula signed into law amendments the Biosafety Law to further accelerate GM crop approvals. Before this amendment, the votes of 18 of the CTNBio’s 27 members were needed for a commercial approval. Now, 14 will do. Even if the other 13 members vote against, the application will pass. Permissions for field trials and other decisions are taken by 14 votes.
 
The measure originally proposed by the Government was to allow GMOs to be planted in buffer zones around ecological conservation areas. This became an issue when Syngenta was caught carrying out illegal GM field trials near the National Iguaçu Park, and fined a million reais (about US$ 450 thousand) by Ibama, the federal environmental authority. Via Campesina farmers occupied the area in March 2006 to denounce the crime publicly.

The elite farmers and agribusiness lobby in Congress added the reduction of votes for GMO approval as a rider to the government’s original “Provisional Measure” on GMOs around conservation areas.

The impact of Lula’s decision not to veto the rider will be more political than practical. Pro-GM members have always held a strong majority on CTNBio, and the 18-vote requirement has never blocked commercial approvals. Average attendance at CTNBio monthly meetings is generally low. But the government felt the need to send a political signal.
 
Both the Environment and the Agrarian Development ministries were against changing the law. The Science & Technology and the Agriculture ministries were in favor. The tie-breaker was presidential chief-of-staff Dilma Roussef, a guerrilla fighter in the 1970s and now Lula’s main political coordinator. She refused to speak with social movements but is known to have met with pro-GM lobbyists.

Lula also ignored an open letter signed by approximately 80 CSOs and 90 members of Congress asking him veto the amendment on CTNBio votes.

Actually, rather than solving the CTNBio’s procedural issues, the government wanted to make it clear that it is sensitive to biotech industry demands, above and beyond the public interest.

Behind closed doors

To close the week, CTNBio president Walter Colli led a very unpleasant scene on March 22. As the Commission convened its plenary session with the Liberty Link release decision near the top of its agenda, it was forced to respond to a petition from Greenpeace for two of its representatives to participate in the meeting as observers, as provided by law.

Colli refused to vote the petition in the presence of the environmentalists, claiming that this should be a secret decision. Some CTNBio members insisted the environmentalists leave the room, while others backed Greenpeace members. The police were called and Colli finally decided to adjourn the meeting before it began.

Accordingly to a press release issued by the Regional Federal Prosecutor’s Office in Brasília, the refusal to allow public participation at the meeting “offends constitutional principles (…) by which it is the rule that public agencies’ meetings and acts must be public, moral and legal, principles which this Commission must obey as a provider of public services in the interest of Brazilian society as a whole.”

The unavoidable question is, what does the CTNBio want to hide?

A Federal prosecutor also present at the abruptly adjourned meeting assured that steps will be taken to assure free access and participation to all, as observers at CTNBio meetings, except at times when confidential matters are under discussion.

The GM-Free Brazil Campaign and its member organizations will continue to follow these issues  especially industry and CTNBio attempts to release GM maize and will keep you informed. Whenever necessary, we will be asking for support from our international partners.

========================================================
GM-FREE BRAZIL - Published by AS-PTA Assessoria e Serviços a Projetos em Agricultura Alternativa. The GM-Free Brazil Campaign is a collective of Brazilian NGOs, social movements and individuals.

AS-PTA an independent, not-for-profit Brazilian organisation dedicated to promoting agroecology and sustainable rural development. Head office: Rua da Candelária, 9/6º andar/ CEP: 20.091-020, Centro, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil. Phone: 0055-21-2253-8317 Fax: 0055-21-2233-363

This article can be found on the AS-PTA website at http://www.aspta.org.br

Should you have any comments, suggestions or questions, feel free to contact us at livredetransgenicos@aspta.org.br

Do participate! Indicate this bulletin to a friend.

If you would like to be removed from our mailing list email:
gmfreebrazil-unsubscribe@listas.aspta.org.br

To subscribe email: gmfreebrazil-subscribe@listas.aspta.org.br
=========================================================