Source: CropBiotech Update

The law project 5.964/2005, which proposes a less dogmatic approach to the regulation of GURTs, has been presented to the House of Representatives of Brazil in order to modify article 6 of the Biosafety Law 11.105/05.

The Biosafety Law 11.105/05 (article 6) restricts the use, commercialization, and licensing of Genetic Use Restriction Technologies (GURTs), defined as any of the processes generating genetically modified plants engineered to be sterile, or activating/deactivating genes related to fertility. However, GURTs comprise two types of applications: Variety GURTs (V-GURTs), which are used to develop sterile plants, and Trait Variety or Switch GURTS (T-GURTS), where the expression of the transgene is regulated by the application of chemicals or by a specific set of environmental conditions. T-GURTs are therefore not necessarily associated with changes in seed fertility of genetically modified (GM) crops. Farmers would be able to keep seeds for planting in the next growing season, although they may no longer have access to the benefits of the introduced trait if they chose to do so.

The biosafety law 11.105/05 therefore would apply only to V-GURTs and T-GURTs affecting plant fertility, while those GURTs that don't would fall outside the law's jurisdiction. This distinction is however not satisfactory to address the existing uncertainties related to the scope of the law, argues Reginaldo Minaré, lawyer and juridical director of ANBio, the Brazilian National Association for Biosafety.
For example, how should the development of sterile sugar cane, which is propagated through stem cuttings and not by seed, be treated?

Minaré argues that GURTs are potentially a very powerful biosafety tool, and the law in its current form will have very negative effects on agricultural research, and in the field of molecular farming: the development of pharmaceuticals in plants, such as edible vaccines. As it is now, proposed changes to the law would arrive too late for many of the projects under consideration by the National Technical Commission for Biosafety (CTNBio), the majority of which involve the development of crops without the ability to flower.

For more information, contact Reginaldo Minaré: rminare@uol.com.br. Read more at: http://www.mrweb.com.br/
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