Acequia farmers in Colorado set to declare ban on GMO corn and alfalfa

http://ejfood.blogspot.com/2015/11/nongmo-movement-acequia-farmers-in.html

Selection of the 2015 native heirloom maize harvest of the seed library of

The Acequia Institute in Viejo San Acacio, CO

Photo by Devon G. Peña

Costilla County introduces ordinance establishing a GMO-free zone to protect traditional farmers’ varieties

CULEBRA WATERSHED IS A CENTER OF ORIGIN AND DIVERSITY OF MAIZE

Devon G. Peña | Viejo San Acacio, CO | November 12, 2015

THE CENTER FOR FOOD SAFETY (CFS) has issued a press release this morning announcing support for a new ordinance introduced today in Costilla County, Colorado that would establish a “Center of Origin” GMO-Free Zone of Protection to preserve the county’s unique agricultural products and traditional farming systems. The ordinance is intended to protect the county’s traditional acequia (community irrigation ditch) farmers and their land race heirloom maize varieties that are unique to the Upper Rio Grande watershed.  The GMO-Free Zone will help traditional and organic farmers avoid the serious risk of transgenic contamination from nearby genetically engineered (GE) crops, particularly GE corn.

Effects of stress on GM maize: Researcher answers questions

http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php/news/archive/2015-articles/16074-effects-of-stress-on-gm-maize-researcher-answers-questions

Dr Angelika Hilbeck talks about her new study showing the unpredictability of GM maize

Syngenta sued for $1 billion over China's rejection of GM corn

On Wednesday, October 15, 2014 5:24 PM, TWN Biosafety Info wrote:

Title : Syngenta Sued for $1 Billion Over China's Rejection of GM Corn
Date : 15 October 2014
 

London, 13 Oct (Mae-Wan Ho*) -- US corn prices plummeted as China rejected all shipments containing traces of Syngenta's MIR162. Farmers from 5 major corn growing states have filed 3 class action lawsuits against Syngenta, claiming damages of more than $1 billion**. 

[** See "Billion-dollar lawsuits claim GMO corn ‘destroyed' US export to China", RT Question More, 6 October 2014,http://rt.com/usa/193612-china-lawsuits-gmo-corn/ . See also ‘Farmers Sue Syngenta'. Chemical & Engineering News, 13 October 2014,http://cen.acs.org/articles/92/i41/Farmers-Sue-Syngenta.html] 

Syngenta released MIR162, trade name Agrisure Vipera, in 2009. It is engineered to make a Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) protein vip3Aa20 toxic to lepidopteran insect pests (butterflies and moths) [Event Name: MIR162, International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications, accessed 13 October 2014, http://www.isaaa.org/gmapprovaldatabase/event/default.asp? EventID=130], and also has a gene pmi (phosphomannose isomerase) from E. coli to allow positive selection for the transgene. 

It was created with Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated plant transformation, a particularly hazardous vector system that risks further horizontal gene transfer (see ‘Ban GMOs Now', ISIS Special Report available at http://www.i-sis.org.uk/Ban_GMOs_Now.php). 

While MIR162 is approved for use in the US, China has not allowed its import into the country. 

Syngenta is blamed for destroying the export of US corn to China, which led to depressed prices for domestic corn, according to Volnek Farms, the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit filed in Omaha, Nebraska federal court. The two other suits were filed in Iowa and Illinois federal courts. 

None of the farmers involved in the lawsuits planted MIR162 seed in their fields in Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska. But their harvested crop was contaminated with traces of the transgenic trait, and hence unsalable to the Chinese market. 

Although Viptera has been planted on only about 3% of US farm acreage, it is difficult to say for sure "that any shipments of US corn will not be contaminated with trace amounts of MIR162", the Nebraska plaintiff stated. 

The National Grain and Feed Association (NGFA) had encouraged Syngenta to stop selling Viptera, according to the Iowa claim. The NGFA estimated that actions taken in China against US corn have caused prices to drop by 11 cents per bushel. 

The Iowa suit also claims that the release of Syngenta's Viptera caused the US-to-China export market to drop by 85%. Nebraska plaintiffs, too, accuse Syngenta of having crippled the 2013-14 corn export market to China. 

The NGFA reported in April 2014 that China had barred nearly 1.45 million tons of corn shipments since 2013. 

In 2011, Syngenta requested in federal court that a grain elevator firm, Bunge North America, to remove its signs that said it would not accept Vipera corn. The request was denied. 

Concern over the safety of GM food may have played a role in a recent decision by China's officials to move away from GM production. 

In August, China's Ministry of Agriculture announced it would not continue with GM rice and corn ["End of the line: GMO production in China halted", RT Question More, 21 August, 2014, http://rt.com/news/181860-gm-china-rice-stopped/]. 

[* Dr Mae-Wan Ho is the co-founder and director of the Institute of Science in Society (ISIS), an independent, not-for-profit organisation founded in 1999 and dedicated to providing critical public information on cutting-edge science, and to promoting social accountability and ecological sustainability in science. Since 1994, she has been scientific advisor to the Third World Network. This article was first published on the ISIS website and can be found at: http://www.i-sis.org.uk/Syngenta_Sued_for_$1_billion.php] +

GMO Corn Faces Hurdles in Mexico

http://www.biosafety-info.net/article.php?aid=1085 September 10, 2014

THIRD WORLD NETWORK BIOSAFETY INFORMATION SERVICE Dear Friends and Colleagues  GM maize face hurdles in Mexico  In April this year, a Mexican court upheld an injunction issued in October 2013 against the further testing or commercialization of genetically modified (GM) maize in the country citing "the risk of imminent harm to the environment" (Item 1). In 2009, the Mexican government approved applications by Monsanto and other corporations to conduct experimental trials on GM maize in six northern states. The government was on the verge of granting approval for the large-scale commercial planting of GM maize in these states when the injunction was issued last year.  The court order was the result of a class action suit filed by 53 citizen plaintiffs, including farmers, environmentalists, and consumers on the grounds that the approval of permits for planting GM maize had violated Mexico’s biosecurity law of 2005. The law provides for the special protection of maize and stipulates that GM maize is not to be sown in proximity to any area known to be a "center of origin" for maize.  Scientists from the National Commission on Biodiversity (CONABIO) have pointed out in a recent paper (Item 2) that Mexico is a center of origin and diversity for maize and other crops.  They warn that given the “agricultural, cultural, and historical contexts that surround maize production in Mexico,it will be very difficult (if not impossible) to control gene flow if commercial releases (of GM crops) take place, and this could threaten food security for all those that depend on its production through landraces”.  With best wishes  Third World Network 131 Jalan Macalister 10400 Penang Malaysia Email: twnet@po.jaring.my Website: http://www.biosafety-info.net/ and http://www.twn.my/ To unsubscribe: reply ‘unsubscribe’ to news@biosafety-info.net To subscribe to other TWN information services: www.twnnews.net Item 1  Monsanto Meets its Match in the Birthplace of Maize Timothy A. Wise  http://triplecrisis.com/monsanto-meets-its-match-in-the-birthplace-of-maize?utm_source=GDAE+Subscribers&utm_campaign=591b2a7943-TW_Monsanto_5_12_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_72d4918ff9-591b2a7943-49679729 Item 2 How Much Can GMO and Non-GMO Cultivars Coexist In A Megadiverse Country?  Caroline Burgeff, Elleli Huerta, Francisca Acevedo, and José Sarukhán Comisión Nacional para el Conocimiento y Uso de la Biodiversidad (CONABIO) http://www.agbioforum.org/v17n1/v17n1a10-burgeff.htm

Letter from a Scientist to the President of Mexico

http://ejfood.blogspot.com/2014/04/geo-watch-exclusive-letter-from.html

GEO Watch Exclusive | Letter from a Scientist to the President of Mexico

Moderator’s Note: Our colleague Miguel Robles of theBiosafety Alliance provided access to a unique set of documents recently released and formerly submitted to the President of Mexico by various scientists. The letters all warn of the environmental and public health dangers posed by transgenic or GMO maize. I am posting the first of these documents: Our exclusive translation of a letter released over the weekend by our colleagues at Acción Colectiva in Mexico. The 8-page (plus references) letter was prepared by Dr. David Schubert, considered one of the foremost immunologists at the Salk Institute. It is addressed to Lic. Enrique Peña Nieto
, President of Mexico, and the heads of the Mexican Environmental Protection and Agriculture ministries. The letter was submitted last October 2013 as part of the evidence presented at trial before the federal judge that ruled to suspend GMO corn plantings in Mexico.

Schubert’s letter mentions six major problems posed by the cultivation and consumption of transgenic corn in Mexico but focuses special attention on the human public health implications. There are quite a few novel ideas here for many of my readers and followers, not the least of which is Schubert’s justified concern over the lack of epidemiological data, the lack of which should lead to the precautionary principle.

However, Schubert raises some interesting questions, especially about the normalization of the US diet as a stand-in for the Mexican diet and the implications this has for the careless use of fancy food safety algorithms to argue that GMO corn is safe, because it is presumably safe in the US. Schubert makes the insightful and profound observation that:

(1) Corn is not a staple crop in the American diet the way it is in the Mexican diet; (2) This means that Americans only indirectly eat GMO corn in forms where the risks posed by Bt proteins are largely eliminated (e.g., vegetable oils, high fructose corn syrup, etc.); and (3) The may ways Mexican cultures eat and prepare corn could result in health consequences due to unanticipated immunological and allergenic responses to such direct consumption of Bt proteins.

Schubert concludes with a foreboding prognosis: “…perhaps the greatest concern about the introduction of any GM product on the market should be that, even when it causes harm to human health, it would be impossible to detect due to the lack of epidemiological studies and technical limitations.” Moreover, he continues by noting that “if the introduction of Bt corn is approved…there will…[an unparalleled] number of people who will consume Bt toxin at levels many thousands of times higher than ever before in the short history of GM technology.” Monsanto and Mexico’s neoliberal rulers want to run the largest biological experiment in human history without the informed consent of the Mexican people. This could turn to blows since the Gene Giants seem determined to move ahead with full-scale unauthorized biological experimentation on the Mexican people and the planet’s fullest complement of native maize biodiversity. These are just a few of more sobering insights offered by Dr. Schubert in his letter to Mexican President Peña Nieto.

Please note use of brackets [ ] to denote moderator edits and inserts; emphases added.

Salk Institute scientist reveals why he opposes GMOs

IN DRAMATIC LETTER TO MEXICO’S PRESIDENT

Lic. Enrique Peña Nieto


Presidente de la República Mexicana


Palacio Nacional Edif. 10 P.B.

Col. Centro, Del. Cuauhtémoc, C.P. 06067 México, D.F. enrique.penanieto@presidencia.gob.mx

Lic. Enrique Martínez y Martínez

Secretario de Agricultura, Ganadería, Desarrollo Rural, Pesca y Alimentación
 Avenida Municipio Libre 377

Col. Santa Cruz Atoyac, Del. Benito Juárez, C.P. 03310 México, D.F.

enrique.martinez@sagarpa.gob.mx

Ing. Juan José Guerra Abud


Secretario de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales


Blvd. Adolfo Ruiz Cortines 4209

Col. Jardines en la Montaña, Del. Tlalpan, C.P. 14210 México, D.F.

juanjoseguerra@semarnat.gob.mx

My name is David Schubert. I have a doctorate in immunology and serve as a Professor at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in San Diego, California, considered one of the top medical research institutions in the world. As a member of this institution I actively work on the development of drugs to treat Alzheimer’s and stroke. Therefore, I possess first-hand knowledge of molecular genetics, toxicology and safety testing involving new chemical and biological entities. I am also knowledgeable about the technology of genetically modified organisms (GMOs ) and have published articles in leading scientific journals on GM plants and their effect on human health.

TO READ THE FULL LETTER:
http://ejfood.blogspot.com/2014/04/geo-watch-exclusive-letter-from.html

10 Years of Failure, Farmers Deceived by GM Corn

The film entitled "10 Years of Failure, Farmers Deceived by GM corn" shows the dire situation of corn farmers in the Philippines who have adopted GM corn. Amidst protests from farmers, scientists, consumers and basic sectors, GM corn was commercialized in the Philippines in 2003. At present, there are about 8 varieties of single, stacked-trait and pyramided GM corn approved by the government for direct planting. It is now planted in about 685,317 hectares of agricultural land allotted for corn.

The film documentary is based on the study done by MASIPAG on the socio-economic impacts of GM corn on farmers' lives and livelihood after more than 10 years of commercialization. In the film, GM corn farmers relate how they became indebted because of the rising cost of GM corn seeds and increasing cost and quantity of inputs being used. The film also shared the farmers account on the effect of GM corn farming such as emergence of new pests, soil erosion, corn contamination and human and animal health impacts. Farmers also shared the difficulty to go back to traditional or organic corn farming because of the loss of traditional seeds and practices replaced by GM corn farming and the effects of neighboring GM corn plantations. The film documentary covers the islands of Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. 

For more information on the study, please visit www.masipag.org.

Film produced by Magsasaka at Siyentipiko para sa Pag-unlad ng Agrikultura (MASIPAG) and KI Multimedia

Growing maize disaster

ETC Group
News Release
Thursday, 13 December 2012
www.etcgroup.org

  
Growing Maize Disaster

---

Mexico remains on high alert following the attempts of Monsanto and other agribusiness multinationals to win the government’s approval to plant 2.5 million hectares of transgenic maize in Mexico, the center of origin and diversity of maize.[1] As ETC wrote last month, approval would allow the boldest coup of a global food crop in history and would threaten biodiversity, farmers’ rights and resilience in the face of climate change. While the outgoing government of Felipe Calderón did not approve the applications before leaving office on November 30^th, its last-minute, surreptitious changes to regulatory procedures removed obstacles that could have hindered the new administration’s ability to grant the companies’ requests.

Inside and outside Mexico, voices have decried the attack aimed at the heart of Mexican cultures, food, health and nature. Since mid-November, there have been workshops and public meetings, as well as petitions and protests by farmers, artists, activists and scientists in social and print media and on the radio. La Via Campesina, Grain and ETC Group wrote an open letter to the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) and Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) asking the multilateral agencies to intervene for the sake of global food security.[2]

As Greenpeace reported at the end of November,[3] the Mexican government quietly changed its regulatory procedures so that the Secretary of the Environment and Natural Resources (Semarnat) is no longer legally bound to take into account the advice of its own and other government agencies’ experts on biosafety. Three government bodies had made critical, extremely cautionary or explicitly negative recommendations when previously consulted about the release of GM maize in Mexico.

Up until the Calderón administration’s parting shot, approvals to release GM crops were granted by the Secretary of Agriculture (Sagarpa) in agreement with the Secretary of Environment and Natural Resources, with a binding (vinculante) obligation to follow the recommendations of the National Institute of Ecology (INE), the National Commission for the Knowledge and Use of Biodiversity (Conabio) and, when applicable, the National Commission of Natural Protected Areas (Conanp). The Calderón government did away with the obligation to follow the recommendations of the three institutions, and the reference to the National Institute of Ecology (INE) was deleted altogether.[4]

The Mexican National Commission for the Knowledge and Use of Biodiversity (Conabio) had recommended the companies’ applications be rejected on the basis of the risks to biodiversity and because it considered coexistence of peasant varieties with GM maize an impossibility. In 2009, Conabio published a study on the origin and diversification of maize,[5] and subsequently began a project involving 235 experts from 70 institutions,[6]which concluded that the whole Mexican territory is the center of origin of maize. This contradicts the conclusions conjured by the Mexican government in its map published in October 2012, which designated some areas in several states of Mexico outside the center of origin – the areas include those where the multinationals have asked to plant GM maize.

After the government of Enrique Peña Nieto took office on December 1^st, the new Secretary of Environment, Juan José Guerra, was quick to declare that he didn’t know enough about GMOs to give an opinion on the controversial issue, but stated it was a “technical decision” and he would consult scientists.[7] While it is absurd to constrain the issue of maize in Mexico to the “technical” realm, there are ample reasons to deny the applications on technical grounds, many of which are as cited in the November 26 letter from the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCCS) to the Mexican government, signed by more than 2700 scientists and other experts, including two Nobel laureates and dozens of national science award winners. The UCCS letter requests that the government immediately reinstate the moratorium against GM maize and cancel all experimental trials as well.[8]

On December 7^th, a broad coalition of urban and rural organizations demonstrated against GM maize outside the Secretary of Agriculture (Sagarpa).[9] Mazahua indigenous women and urban grassroots organizations made tortillas in the street, with Mexican farmers, indigenous peoples and civil society organizations affirming their resistance to transgenic maize and the attempted coup by transnational companies. Delegates from all the organizations met with biosafety authorities of the Secretary to discuss the situation they consider “a national emergency.”[10] They called for an open debate on GM maize to take place as soon as possible, with the understanding that the government not allow planting of GM maize in the meantime. On the same day as the demonstration in Mexico City, civil society organizations in Germany demonstrated their solidarity in front of Mexico’s embassy in Berlin.[11]

The United Nations and the world’s governments are standing by while the creators of maize are threatened by a government administration that has the power to unilaterally and irrevocably undermine global food security[12] and 7,000 years of peasant maize breeding. If Mexico’s government allows the commercial planting of GM maize, the precedent will have been set for centers of origin and diversity of food crops to be plundered and for the temporal territorial priorities of one administration to prevail over the human Right to Food.

For more information:

Silvia Ribeiro, ETC Group Latin America Director, silvia@etcgroup.org

Verónica Villa, ETC Group, Mexico, veronica@etcgroup.org

Tel: (+52) 55 63 2664

Pat Mooney, ETC Group Executive Director, etc@etcgroup.org

Tel: 1-613-241-2267

Red en Defensa del Maíz: http://redendefensadelmaiz.net/

---

[1] The official list of commercial applications for environmental release of GMOs is available here: http://www.senasica.gob.mx/?id=4443. The applications for commercial GM maize release are in numbers 61, 62, 79, 80, 81, 82 from year 2012.

[2] La Via Campesina, Grain, ETC Group, “Maíz transgénico en centro de origen. Carta abierta al CBD y a la FAO,” 29 November 2012. Available at http://viacampesina.org/es/

[3] Greenpeace Mexico, “Semarnat modifica reglamento para allanar camino a transgénicos,” press release, 29 November 2012, available online:http://www.greenpeace.org/mexico/es/Prensa1/2012/Noviembre/Semarnat-modifica-reglamento-para-allanar-camino-a-transgenicos/.

[4] Diario Oficial de la Federación 26 November 2012, “Decreto por el que se expide el Reglamento Interior de la Secretaría de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales.” The change is in article 27 - XVII. A comparison with the previous version of art 27 is in the Greenpeace news release cited in footnote 3. See: http://dof.gob.mx/nota_detalle.php?codigo=5279128&fecha=26/11/2012

[5] Kato, T.A. et al., “Origen y diversificación del maíz: una revisión analítica,” Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Comisión Nacional para el Conocimiento y Uso de la Biodiversidad, México, 2009, available online:http://www.biodiversidad.gob.mx/genes/pdf/Origen%20del%20MaizUv.pdf.

[6] National Commission for Biodiversity, Project Centers of Origin and diversification, available online:http://www.biodiversidad.gob.mx/v_ingles/genes/centers_origin/centers_origin.html.

[7]  Enciso, A. “Para decidir sobre maíz transgénico, reunión intersecretarial…” La Jornada, México, 6 December 2012, available online:http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2012/12/06/politica/017n1pol.

[8] See also, UCCS, European Network of Scientists for Social and Environmental Responsibility (ENSSER), International Network of Engineers and Scientists for Global Responsibility (INES), Third World Network and Grain, “GM Maize in Mexico: An irreversible path away from agricultural biodiversity, farmer livelihoods and the right to food within the center of origin of maize,” November 2012, available online:http://www.ensser.org/developing-responsible-approaches-to-risk-assessment/gm-maize-in-mexico/.

[9] The demonstration was called by the Asamblea Nacional de Afectados Ambientales, Red en Defensa del Maíz, Movimiento Urbano Popular, Jóvenes ante la Emergencia Nacional, Movimiento Yo soy 132 and Unión Popular Revolucionaria Emiliano Zapata (UPREZ).

[10] See the original statement by the 8^th Assembly of Environmental Affected in November 2012:  http://redendefensadelmaiz.net/2012/11/pronunciamiento-emergencia-nacional-maiz-transgenico-a-punto-de-envenenar-nuestras-mesas-2/.

[11] See http://www.emergenciamaiz.org/ with photos and the declaration in English.

[12] The poor in Latin America, but also in Asia and Africa, depend on breeding from maize diversity to support their subsistence and to help them cope with impacts of climate change.

Fishycorn Goes on National GMO Education Tour

http://www.organicconsumers.org/bytes/ob358.htm

It’s a fish... it’s a car... wait! It’s a Fishycorn car?

The Sustainable Living Roadshow and REAL Cooperative are traveling from California to Washington DC to promote education and awareness about genetically modified foods and the importance of GMO labeling and testing in the United States. What better way to attract attention and get out the word than by driving Fishycorn, the giant cornfish car?

Follow Fishycorn on Facebook

The Great Mexican Maize Massacre

http://www.etcgroup.org/content/great-mexican-maize-massacre

Thu, 2012-11-15 10:08

Gene Giants Prepare the Genetic Wipe-out of One of the World’s Most Important Food Crops

 ETCNR-GMmaizefinal15Nov2012_links.pdf

Agribusiness giants Monsanto, DuPont and Dow are plotting the boldest coup of a global food crop in history. If their requests to allow a massive commercial planting of genetically modified (GM) maize are approved in the next two weeks by the government of outgoing president Felipe Calderón, this parting gift to the gene giants will amount to a knife in the heart of the center of origin and diversity for maize. The consequences will be grave – and global. With the approvals and December planting deadlines looming, social movements and civil society organizations have called for an end to all GM maize in Mexico. Mexico’s Union of Concerned Scientists (UCCS) has called on the Mexican government to stop the processing of any application for open-field release of GM maize in Mexico.[1] ETC Group joins these calls, and appeals to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) – intergovernmental bodies mandated to support food security and biodiversity – to take immediate action.

Outrage and alarm rang out through Mexico when the world’s two largest commercial seed companies, Monsanto and DuPont (whose seed business is known as DuPont Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc.), and Dow AgroSciences (the world’s 8^th largest seed company) applied to the government for the planting of 2,500,000 hectares (more than 6 million acres) of transgenic maize in Mexico.[2] The land area is massive – about the size of El Salvador. Scientists have identified thousands of peasant varieties of maize, making Mexico the global repository of maize genetic diversity. If the agribusiness applications are approved, it will mark the world’s first commercial-scale planting of genetically modified varieties of a major food crop in its center of origin.

“If Mexico’s government allows this crime of historic significance to happen, GMOs will soon be in the food of the entire Mexican population, and genetic contamination of Mexican peasant varieties will be inevitable. We are talking about damaging more than 7,000 years of indigenous and peasant work that created maize – one of the world’s three most widely eaten crops,” said Verónica Villa from ETC’s Mexico office. “As if this weren’t bad enough, the companies want to plant Monsanto’s herbicide-tolerant maize [Mon603] on more than 1,400,000 hectares. This is the same type of GM maize that has been linked to cancer in rats according to a recently published peer-reviewed study.”[3]

To read the full release, please download the PDF.

---

[1] UCCS (Unión de Científicos Comprometidos con la Sociedad), “Statement: Call to action vs the planting of GMO corn in open field situations in Mexico,” November 2012, available online: http://www.uccs.mx/doc/g/planting-gmo-corn.

[2] The list of commercial applications for environmental release of GMOs is available here: http://www.senasica.gob.mx/?id=4443. (In Mexico, DuPont Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc., is known by the name PHI México.)

[3] Gilles-Eric Séralini et al., “Long term toxicity of a Roundup herbicide and a Roundup-tolerant genetically modified maize,” Food and Chemical Toxicology, Volume 50, Issue 11, November 2012, pp. 4221–4231. See also, John Vidal, “Study linking GM maize to cancer must be taken seriously by regulators,” The Guardian, 28 September 2012, available online: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/sep/28/study-gm-maize-cancer.

NGOs demand re-assessment of GM maize questioned in recent French study

http://www.foodfirst.org/en/Brazilian+nonprofits+challenge+approval+of+GMO+maize+

November 4, 2012, Rio de Janeiro

Civil society organizations have issued an official letter to Brazil’s federal government questioning the commercial release of the genetically modified maize NK603. Their request for reassessment of the release has been sent to various ministers and representatives of bodies linked to the area with the aim of suspending use of this technology until independent research confirms its dietary and nutritional safety. Social movements, civil organizations, scientific bodies and rights-based NGOs were among the entities signing the document.

The National Biosafety Technical Commission (CTNBio) approved the commercial release of the genetically modified maize NK603 in 2008, a glyphosate tolerant variety (Roundup Ready) owned by Monsanto, today grown throughout Brazil. The movements argue that, as is common practice with commercial releases of GMOs in Brazil, the research on which authorization was based involved short-term studies made by the applying company itself. Another five stacked varieties of GM maize include the NK603 event in their composition.

New scientific data on the adverse effects of NK603 was published in September by the renowned science journal Food and Chemical Toxicology. Researchers from Caen University in France found evidence of metabolic alterations caused by the consumption of GM maize, whether or not combined with the use of the Roundup herbicide. The study is considered unique because of its inclusion of more than 100 parameters over a 2-year period using 200 laboratory rats. The results revealed a higher and more frequent mortality rate when both these products were consumed, as well as non-linear hormonal effects related to sex. Females developed numerous large mammary tumours, as well as hypophyseal and kidney problems. Most of the males died from chronic hepatorenal deficiencies.

The study’s authors proposed that the GMOs concerned should be very carefully evaluated by long-term studies to measure their potential toxic effects. Brazil’s National Biosafety Law allows reassessment of technical decisions based on new scientific facts or knowledge relevant to biosafety. In addition the National Biosafety Council (CBNS), composed by 11 ministers, can also ban the use of particular products based on the national interest.

The civil society organizations producing the document emphasized the urgent need to reassess the commercial releases linked to NK603 maize and argued that, in the meantime, any authorizations based on these technical reports should be suspended. The objective is to ban the planting, use and sale of this kind of seed, given the risk posed by these crops to Brazil’s population. The NGOs argue that it is unacceptable for research with a bearing on the population’s health to be conducted only by the companies applying for commercial release of GMOs, whose interests merely reflect the profits accrued by these transnationals. They are therefore calling for studies by independent researchers unconnected to the economic interests of these companies. In their official letter they also demand that IBAMA and ANVISA, state agencies responsible for registration and control in the area, also make a formal request for the technical reports for NK603 maize to be reassessed and for the ministers on the CNBS to adopt a clear stance on the issue.

Bt Corn Linked To Soil Ecosystem Threat

Monsanto Bt Crops: Genetically Modified Corn Linked To Soil Ecosystem Threat
Ryan Villarreal
International Business Times, April 17 2012
http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/329549/20120417/monsanto-gmo-bt-corn-genetically-modified-toxic.htm?cid=2

Bioengineering agricultural giant Monsanto has touted the safety of genetically modified crops, but a new study has found that insecticide-containing corn can be harmful to the overall health of soil ecosystems.

Genetically modified corn has been linked to a decrease in a subterranean fungus that forms a symbiotic bond with plant roots, allowing them to draw in more nutrients and water from the surrounding soil in exchange for carbon.

Transgenes in Mexican Maize, Ten Years On

THIRD WORLD NETWORK BIOSAFETY INFORMATION SERVICE

Dear Friends and colleagues,

RE: Transgenes in Mexican Maize, Ten Years On

It has been 10 years since the discovery of transgenes in Mexican maize which caused much international concern over the contamination by GM crops in a center of origin and its implications on genetic diversity.

Since then, the pertinent question is no longer if transgenes will contaminate Mexico´s maize landraces, but more importantly, what we might lose if this continues, says GenØk -Centre for Biosafety, in a new briefing paper. Answering this question would require addressing the ecological, social, economic and cultural aspects related to transgene contamination of landraces including the need to fundamentally change how risk assessments are conducted and decisions are made.

The briefing is available at:

http://www.genok.com/news_cms/2011/december/genoek-biosafety-brief-transgenes-in-mexican-maize-ten-years-on-still-not-addressing-the-right-questions-on-risks/147

The briefing is an expanded version of a commentary published in the Mexican newspaper La Jornada (in Spanish) on 3 Dec 2011, and is available at http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2011/12/03/opinion/018a2pol

With best wishes,

Third World Network

131 Jalan Macalister,

10400 Penang,

Malaysia

Email: twnet@po.jaring.my

Website: www.biosafety-info.net and www.twnside.org.sg To subscribe to other TWN information lists: www.twnnews.net