Genetic contamination becomes apparent in Europe. Is India listening?

[Jagannath Chatterjee]

The proponents of GM crop argue that if sufficient distance is maintained inbetween GM crop and normal crop there would be no contamination. This highly controversial suggestion has already been proved wrong in Europe as GM contamination spreads across a wide area. Scientists who have warned against this are livid, but business houses are only interested in the profits.

 

Jagannath.

 

 

Subject: GMW: Altered crops in Europe: At what cost?
From: "GM WATCH" <info@...>
Date: Thu, 25 May 2006 21:12:37 +0100

GM WATCH daily
http://www.gmwatch.org
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Altered crops in Europe: At what cost?
By Elisabeth Rosenthal
International Herald Tribune, MAY 25, 2006
http://iht.com/bin/print_ipub.php?file=/articles/2006/05/24/news/gmo.php

ALBONS, Spain Enric Navarro was dumbfounded when the letter arrived
from the testing lab of the Spanish organic farmers association in late
February, informing him that his organic crop contained 12 percent
genetically modified corn. Hearing that his plants had been modified by
biotechnology was almost as traumatic for Navarro as finding they
contained
nuclear waste.

For four years, he has lovingly planted hundreds of varieties of trees,
shrubs, flowers and herbs to attract just the right mix of insects so
that he would not need fertilizers or weed- killers on his precious
seven hectares. "If I could not farm organic, I would not farm," Navarro
said. "I could not sleep at night if I sold that crop."

He burned the corn in the field to rid his farm of what he calls a
"contaminant." But he does not know how the genetically modified seed
blew
in. He cannot claim compensation for his losses. Also, since pollen
lingers, he is not sure when, if ever, it will be safe to use the
field to
farm organic corn again.

As the European Union cracks open the door to genetically modified
crops, Navarro's tale serves as a caution about the risks, scientific
uncertainties and the hazy policies now in place to deal with problems
that
will almost certainly arise.

For eight years, Spain was the only EU member state to allow commercial
cultivation of genetically modified crops. In the last 18 months, the
European Commission has approved 11 genetically modified seeds for
planting in the bloc. In 2005, France, Germany, Portugal and the Czech
Republic began planting small commercial plots.

The cornerstone of the EU's policy is the political conviction that
genetically altered crops and conventional crops can coexist as long as
proper safeguards are in place - such as keeping a distance between the
two types of fields and imposing a liability scheme for accidents.

But scientifically, there are strong disagreements about whether
coexistence is possible, and at what cost.

"Coexistence is feasible in the vast majority of places, so long as
farmers talk to each other and cooperate," agreeing, for example, not to
place GM and conventional seeds of the same crop in adjacent fields,
said Simon Barber of EuropaBio, an industry group in Brussels. Ordeals
like Navarro's, he said, should be rare.

But many scientists - not just those with Green credentials - believe
that the small, closely spaced farms of Europe make such coexistence
difficult if not prohibitively expensive.

"My experts all agreed that coexistence often just doesn't work, it
isn't possible," said Chantal Line Carpentier, an agricultural economist
who assembled an independent panel of international experts to study the
issue in North America.

The study was requested by Mexico in 2002, after GM corn was discovered
contaminating fields of native crops in Oaxaca, hundreds of miles south
of the United States. Mexico had not permitted GM cultivation, for fear
that the heartier, but more uniform, genetically modified variants
would edge out its dozens of unique strains of maize.

That report, "Maize and Biodiversity," prepared by the North American
Council on Environmental Cooperation, concluded that the GM corn - which
came from the United States - might have a long-term effect on Mexico's
ecology and biodiversity and should be more thoroughly studied and
monitored.

The United States and Canada attacked its conclusions. "We are deeply
disappointed that the CEC secretariat has produced a report that ignores
key science about biotechnology," reads a letter of protest from the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

But some farmers believe the report did not go far enough. "Saying that
GM and non-GM farming can coexist is nonsensical," said Julian Rose, an
organic farmer from England who has helped organize Polish farmers
against modified crops. "It's like saying that noise and silence can
coexist in a room."

The biotech industry considers that "coexistence" has been achieved if
mixing is below 0.9 percent. It argues that foods in the EU could be
labeled GM- free if they contained less than that amount. The concept
infuriates advocates of organic foods, who liken it to allowing a bit of
meat in vegetarian products. But even industry analysts admit that 100
percent GM free foods are not practical once GM farming begins on a
large scale. "Coexistence has become a problem in Europe because some
people want zero percent tolerance," Barber said. "And that is, quite
frankly, unobtainable."

There are simply too many ways that mixing occurs: Mills grind crops
from different farms, a cookie contains oil made from imported GM soy.
The GM corn in Oaxaca was most likely the progeny of GM ears that had
been legally imported for animal feed, whose kernels had been illegally
used for planting.

With so many routes, environmental groups say it inevitably spreads
past the 0.9 percent limit and to areas where it is unwelcome.

"When the government of Catalonia says there's no evidence of genetic
pollution, what they mean is they didn't look," said Anna Rosa Martinez
of Greenpeace in Barcelona. Last year, Greenpeace tested 40 organic
farms, and nearly 20 percent had some level of contamination, from 0.7 to
12 percent.

Suzette Jackson, a spokeswoman for Greenpeace International, said: "We
would like to keep Europe as a supplier of non-GM food, and when you
look at countries with a lot of GM crops, it eventually becomes really
hard, or hugely expensive, to maintain regular farming."

Spain allowed GM cultivation in 1998. Twelve percent of corn is now GM
- 50,000 to 60,000 hectares - about half of that in Catalonia.

Farmers are free to choose what to plant, but representatives of GM
seed companies now regularly hold dinners touting the benefits of
modified
seeds, which are patented. Some variants produce pesticides, others
have stalks that resist wind or need less water.

While some farmers signed on, others - like Navarro - said no,
preferring the independence and quality they see with traditional seeds.

Traditional farmers in Mexico, and many in Europe, save seed from one
season's crop to plant the next. It is cheaper and allows selection of
unique varieties. Such replanting is forbidden under the agreement for
GM corn seed that farmers sign with companies like Monsanto and
Syngenta.

In 2004, knowing that GM corn was growing in his area, Navarro planted
just a small patch of land to see if he could grow without
contamination. Successful, he later planted two large corn fields.
"But it was very
windy here last fall," he said, "so perhaps it blew in some stalks from
another field, and contaminated me. I don't know, I will never know."

His two fields are 70 and 100 meters, 230 and 330 feet, from his
neighbors' farms, a distance often deemed adequate to prevent mixing.
But the
GM seed could have come on the wind or on a truck tire, from anywhere.

He would like an investigation to prevent a recurrence. But there is no
reliable log of which farmers plant GM seeds in the area, and farmers
are not likely to confess, for fear of being sued.

In Denmark, to prepare for GM farming, the government is creating a
liability pool that all GM farmers will have to pay in to.

The EU agriculture commissioner, Mariann Fischer Boel, has told EU
states to try to guarantee coexistence, but it is unclear how, or at what
cost. Can farmers afford to maintain buffer zones of 100 meters between
fields? Would it work to create zones specifically designated for GM
crops? Will the GM crops harm the environment?




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"Our ideal is not the spirituality that withdraws from life but the conquest of life by the power of the spirit." -  Aurobindo.

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