|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
ENVIRONMENT DAY-CHILE:
'No Protection'
from Transgenic Foods
María Cecilia Espinosa
SANTIAGO, (IPS) - Chile is
''totally legally unprotected''
when it comes to genetically
modified organisms, and they are
found in 50 to 60 percent of the
processed food consumed in this
country, Juan Carlos Cuchacovich,
an activist with environmental
watchdog Greenpeace, told IPS.
The Chilean affiliate of
Greenpeace held protests and an
international seminar about the
risks involved with genetically
modified organisms (GMOs), while
in Santiago the 21st World
Congress of the International
Seed Federation was under way,
bringing together some 1,200
agricultural entrepreneurs until
Thursday, just days before World
Environment Day, celebrated on
Jun. 5.
Felipe Sánchez, president of the
Chilean Association of Seed
Producers, said his country is
the world's fifth leading seed
exporter, supplying around five
percent of the market. The main
types of seeds sold abroad are
for maize, vegetables and
flowers.
Around 5,000 hectares, mostly
owned by agribusiness
transnationals, are dedicated to
the reproduction of transgenic
seeds, particularly maize. Local
legislation allows production
only for export because, in
theory, sales of genetically
modified food are not allowed
nationally.
Cuchacovich, coordinator of
Greenpeace-Chile's genetic
engineering campaign, told IPS
this country ''has no major
regulatory body, not even any
institutional system'' to attend
to the problem of GMOs.
''It is total lack of
protection. The only regulation
that expressly established a
ban,'' and which prohibited the
inclusion of transgenic inputs
in food for children, ''was
eliminated by the Health
Ministry in 2003 without any
technical reason,'' said the
activist.
From the perspective of the
environmentalists, there is
barely a regulatory framework
existing in the government's
Agriculture and Livestock
Service, applied by a committee
of the Agriculture Ministry.
Chile's President Ricardo Lagos
proposed a legislative bill in
2004 for biosecurity, but it
never made it to Congress
because ''there were a great
number of discrepancies within
the government. The law was
going to be rejected by a strong
group of lawmakers who opposed
the way it was being
presented,'' said Cuchacovich.
Chile signed the Cartagena
Protocol on Biosafety in 2000,
but has not ratified the treaty.
''It would be an inconsistency
that the country, because it is
aligned with the U.S. position,
marginalizes itself from an
international convention that it
already signed,'' said the
environmentalist.
The Protocol obligates the
parties to minimise risks in the
movement of GMOs from one
country to another, but ''Chile
is importing transgenic maize
and soybeans, primarily to feed
livestock,'' Cuchacovich said.
There is a tendency to provide
incentives for biotechnology
through legal means, in keeping
with ''strong pressure from
technology promoters, like the
United States and Canada, but in
general the Latin American
countries have only minimal
legislation'' in this area, he
added.
According to a Greenpeace study,
which led to the publication of
a food security guide for Chile,
''between 50 and 60 percent of
our food contains transgenics in
different forms.'' These mostly
involve food inputs imported
from Argentina and the United
States.
Greenpeace released a survey in
March that was conducted in four
of Chile's 13 regions in
November and December 2004, in
which 95.9 percent of the
Chileans surveyed said they
wanted foods containing
genetically modified material to
be labelled as such, and 58.5
percent said they would prefer
not to consume any transgenic
foods.
Given the delay in passing
legislation requiring labelling
of transgenic foods, Cuchacovich
says it is unacceptable that
''in a country like Chile, which
proclaims its democracy and
liberty, they hide the most
basic information for people to
make decisions'' about the
products they buy.
It is a violation of the right
to information, which is the
result of ''economic motives of
the companies that know their
(transgenic) products are going
to be rejected because people
don't want to consume them. Our
survey reflects that.''
Cuchacovich said public opinion
could pressure government
officials to move on labelling
legislation, as occurred in
Brazil and Mexico. ''Citizens
can't lose hope that indeed,
with organisation, changes are
possible.''
Legislative deputy Leopoldo
Sánchez, of the co-governing
Party for Democracy, told IPS
''there is no clear policy on
the part of the executive branch
on this issue.''
The proposed law on
biotechnology was entrusted to
the deputy economy minister
Alvaro Díaz, with the
''viewpoint of an economist, of
a market economy, and with
little connotation of the
concept of environmental
sustainability,'' said Sánchez.
The deputy explained that in
recent decades Chilean farming
has undergone deep changes, with
greater trade capacity and the
use of hybrid seeds and
chemicals, which have increased
the profitability of the farming
sector.
''But no modern technology has
faced so much opposition'' as
transgenics have, he added.
''Rejection of them is seen in
nearly the whole world.''
''Nobody is in a position to say
responsibly that transgenics
will not have negative effects.
As such, doubts must be
respected,'' said Sánchez.
The deputy suggested a law
banning transgenic crops in a
specific area of the country,
with the ultimate goal of a GMO-free
Chile. ''Why not exploit that
opportunity and have a
distinctive stamp in the (trade)
competition, now, while there is
still time to make a decision,
before we are full of
transgenics -- if we aren't
already,'' he said.
Ten years after the first
authorisation for a genetically
modified organism in the world,
the only thing for sure for
Greenpeace is that these
products have not been able to
end hunger worldwide, as the
organisation said May 31 during
the seminar on ''Risks of
transgenic agriculture for
Chile''.
Says Emiliano Ezcurra, of
Greenpeace-Argentina,
''transgenic agriculture is on a
commercial scale, of
commodities, it is not about
specific crops. The bulk of them
are ending up in the stomachs of
cattle, pigs and poultry through
forage.''
Most transgenic crops are
soybeans, maize, rapeseed and
cotton. Ninety percent of the
world's GMO production is
concentrated in four countries:
United States, Argentina, Canada
and China. Eighty percent of
transgenics are produced in the
first three.
The growth of the population of
the planet, with its total
cultivable area remaining mostly
constant, has put food security
at risk.
Defenders of GMOs said the
problem would be resolved by the
increased yields of transgenic
crops. They also said it would
end the deforestation caused by
the expansion of the
agricultural frontier as farmers
seek more land to cultivate.
In Ezcurra's opinion, transgenic
crops ''were not able to feed
all humanity, they did not
prevent the use of
agrochemicals, and they didn't
produce greater yields. They
only resolved the problem of
pests and weeds.''
Areas of biodiversity have been
converted into monoculture, he
said. ''Today we plant soybeans
where before nothing could be
planted. It is being cultivated
where there used to be native
flora and fauna.''
Transgenic crops have advanced
in Argentina at a rate of ''20
football fields per hour, while
government officials and private
companies have failed to
regulate the sector efficiently,
and they don't guarantee the
right to information consecrated
in Article 42 of the
constitution,'' said Ezcurra.
In the European Union,
legislation has been in place
since 1996 requiring products
containing transgenic material
to be labelled as such, Natalia
Tsigaridou, of
Greenpeace-Europe, told the
seminar.
Eight percent of the European
population rejects GMOs, said
the activist. ''Fourteen of the
30 supermarket chains proposed
not selling transgenic
products.''
However, Greece is the only EU
country that has declared its
territory ''transgenic free'',
she said.
''More than 4,500 European areas
of different legal types -- such
as provinces, prefectures or
departments, have adopted
initiatives to protect their
farmland from (GMO)
contamination and to satisfy the
desires of their citizens,''
said Tsigaridou.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
