Brazil GM soy move sparks green fury, farmer doubt

Planetark.org BRAZIL: March 31, 2003

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil - Environmental activists reacted angrily last week to a Brazilian government measure allowing the sale of genetically modified soybeans, while farmers were worried about its terms and temporary nature.

Traders said the measure dispelled uncertainty about marketing of this year's record harvest and would boost trade in Rio Grande do Sul, the No.3 soy producer state in Brazil, which is the world's second largest soy producer and exporter.

About 80 percent of the soy crop in Rio Grande and 12 percent of the national crop is privately estimated to be transgenic.

"It's a serious attack on Brazilian justice," said Greenpeace genetics campaigner Mariana Paoli.

Transgenic crops are banned in Brazil while a federal court considers whether the government's commission on biotechnology, CTNBio, has the authority to approve their commercial planting and sale.

On Wednesday, the president's spokesman said that a provisional measure would be published last week allowing GM soybeans to be sold until the end of Jan. 2004.

Paoli charged that President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's government had broken an election pledge to adopt a precautionary approach toward GM crops, carry out environmental impact studies and stop illegal planting.

"The worst thing is that the government is now allowing domestic sales of GM soy, Brazilians will be consuming a product that hasn't received either health or environmental approval," Paoli said.

PRODUCER CONCERN

Producers, while pleased that GM soybeans could be marketed this year, were unhappy about labeling requirements and worried about the future.

"It won't be easy to fulfill the provisional measure because nobody is ready to segregate the harvest," said Rui Polidoro Pinto, President of the Agricultural and Livestock Cooperatives of Rio Grande do Sul (Fecoagro).

Pinto complained that the process of certification, involving the segregation of conventional and GM soybeans, starts before planting, but harvesting has already started.

He also noted that 25 percent of Rio Grande do Sul's soy crop had been sold in advance without definition of the type of grain.

The president of the Rio Grande do Sul Agricultural Federation (Farsul), Carlos Sperotto, agreed.

"We aren't equipped to segregate and label," he said, adding that arrangements for 2004 must be debated widely in congress and the courts.

Farm workers were apprehensive.

"It only applies for this harvest. We want a wide debate to fix clear rules for next year," said Elisario Toledo of the Federation of Agricultural Workers of Rio Grande (Fetag), noting that there were 142,000 soybean growers in the state.

Rio Grande do Sul is expected to produce 7.8 million tonnes of soybeans in 2002/03, up 39 percent from last crop season, according to the government's crop supply agency Conab. It forecast the national crop rising 18 percent to 49.6 million tonnes.

Soy traders said that at this late stage in the crop cycle, the government had no option but to allow the marketing of transgenic soybeans in 2003.

"Harvesting has already started in Rio Grande and banning GM soy now would hurt too many people," said a grain trading manager in the state capital Porto Alegre.

Uncertainty about government policy had brought soy trading to a virtual standstill in the southern state.

"It's been painfully slow. We're way behind last year," the manager said.

Analysts noted that six harvests of transgenic soybeans had been marketed in Rio Grande do Sul without problem or publicity.

"However GM soy has now become a soap opera," said Anderson Galvao Gomes, soy analyst at Celeres-MPrado.

Story by Peter Blackburn