6 September 2013

Brazil: a report reveals that all GMO plantations are illegal

A report prepared in July for the National Brazilian Council for Food and Nutrition Safety (CONSEA - Conselho Nacional de Segurança Alimentar e Nutricional) admits that all the cultivation approvals for GMOs in Brazil were given without prior sound and reliable scientific analyses, and without proper legal precedent. This means that all current GMO plantations in Brazil are illegal.

The report stresses that all the so-called scientific studies that were conducted to give basis to decide on the cultivation of GMOs were done using biased methods and protocols, violating the norms approved in Brazil. The report adds that some of these biases are also found in the studies conducted by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA)

It also provides information demonstrating the inefficiency of GMOs in terms of their expected results and the negative consequences (increase of use of pesticides used on GMOs, increased resistance of pests to the insecticide-producing GMOs, migration of pests towards other crops). It also emphasises the lack of precise and reliable knowledge on the health impact of consumption of GMOs on animals as well as on humans, or on their effect on microbiological activity of the soils on which GMOs are cultivated. Finally, it warns on the fact that current management of GMO crops does not give proper guarantee regarding the non-contamination of other crops by GMOs.

It is too early to have a proper estimate on the follow-up the CONSEA and the Brazilian government will give to this report. It is worth recalling here that Brazil is the second GMO producer in the world in terms of area of cultivation, just behind the US. The data presented by the IAAA (International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications) show that in 2011 Brazil was cultivating 30.3 million ha with GMOs (mainly cotton, soybean and maize). This represented 18.9% of the areas cultivated with GMOs in the world.

The author of the report, Leonardo Melgarejo is a member of the body responsible for the regulation of GMOs (CTNBio -  National Technical Commission on Biosecurity)

Some further readings:

1. -All GMO approvals in Brazil are illegal, says whistleblowing regulator (NaturalNews.com)
   

2. -The full report in Portuguese and some excerpts in English (gmwatch.org)
   

Last update:    September 2013

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