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Brazil postpones GM regulation (Tuesday, June 3, 2003 -- CropChoice news) --
Andrew Apel, AgBiotech Reporter, via AgBioView: Brazil has postponed the application of new rules requiring that labels
identify GM goods, after neighboring Argentina expressed alarm over the
requirements. Brazil is Argentina s main trading partner and some 13
percent of the $11.4 billion of food Argentina exported last year went to
Brazil, according to the Organization of American States' agricultural
institute.
Argentine producers say the rules were stricter than those in Europe.
"They've gone too far in including animal products... Argentine dairy
products would have to carry a label saying this product comes from
animals fed on GMOs", said Roberto Domenech, undersecretary of food at
the agriculture department. "This hasn't been seen anywhere in the
world. "
First we have to see how Brazil deals with this domestically and then how
it deals with Argentina, because in Brazil there is also a high percentage
of GM soy, said Victor Castro of the Argentine Association of Seed
Producers.
In Brazil, there was no reaction to the rules. Over one month after the
government decreed that all GM soy must carry consumer warning labels,
Brazil's producers, cooperatives and traders were buying and selling
without any GM labels or any increase in GM-free certificates. For now,
the measure has not altered anything in the commercial process of the
cooperatives, said Rui Polidoro, president of the Rio Grande do Sul
Federation of Agricultural Cooperatives (Fecoagro), which has seen no
labeling or increase in segregation of soybeans in the No. 3 soy producer
state.
Cooperatives said there was no apparent increase in interest in certifying
soy as GM-free, either. Antonio Sartori, owner of the Rio Grande do Sul
brokerage Brasoja, said nobody was certifying crops as non-transgenic
because there was no financial compensation. The buyer doesn t want to
know, so the producer prefers to deliver the soy as transgenic and ready,
said Sartori.
Brazil's agriculture ministry and grower associations were quick to point
out deficiencies in the regulations. Agriculture minister Roberto
Rodrigues said, It is difficult to discriminate between GM and non-GM
beans. We don't have enough laboratories to inspect all of the lots and
are even less prepared to certify producers. Federation of Cooperatives
of Grande do Sul President Rui Polidoro said, "We have only three or four
[test] kits, and with that number we have no hope of segregating the
state's soybeans. "
The regulations do not specify who is responsible to shoulder the cost of
inspection and certification. The price of tests for detecting transgenic
content ranges from $127 for the simplest to $330 for sophisticated test
kits. Brazil's National Agriculture Federation estimated the cost of
testing this year s soybean crop at $276.8 million. According to one
estimate, passing that cost on to consumers would make it impossible for
Brazil to remain competitive in the global soybean market.
Grower associations estimate that the majority of soybeans harvested in
Brazil this year would have been labeled as having transgenic content in
order to eliminate the risk of fines. This might have eventually ended in
requiring that all those soybeans be exported, as a measure pending in the
legislature would ban selling any biotech soybeans within Brazil.
Legalizing commercialization of GM crops may be the only viable way out of
Brazil's biotech soybean dilemma, because grower associations in Rio
Grande do Sul have already stated their intent to plant Roundup Ready
soybeans again this fall, with or without government approval. Compiled
from reports by Reuters and Food Chemical News.
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