Quito, Ecuador
May 27, 2009
by Tania Orbe,
SciDev.Net
Moves by Ecuador's president to
veto legislation covering genetically modified organisms could
let controversial 'terminator' seeds into the country,
campaigning groups claim.
Ecuador bans the cultivation of genetically modified (GM) crops
but for more than a decade it has allowed imports of transgenic
materials — particularly soybean and corn. There are no clear
regulations about planting GM crops for research.
The interim Transitional Assembly approved a new law on food
sovereignty earlier in the year (17 February). Article 26 of the
law states that "raw materials containing transgenic inputs may
only be imported and processed, provided they meet the
requirements of health and safety, and their reproductive
capacity is disabled by the breaking of grains".
Imported grains are 'broken' to avoid them germinating and
mingling their genes with ordinary crops.
But on 19 March the president, Rafael Correa, proposed modifying
the legislation, including deleting the term "by breaking of
grains" so that the law no longer defines how the seeds'
reproductive capacity is disabled. Whether this 'partial veto'
is passed will depend on the National Assembly, which is due to
be formed on 1 August following the recent general election.
Correa says that breaking the grains is expensive. But the ETC
Group — a Canadian organisation that researches the
socioeconomic impacts of new technologies — says that allowing
alternative disabling of reproductive capacity could lead to
accepting terminator seeds.
Terminator or 'suicide' seeds are modified so they can't
reproduce in the second generation. The Convention on Biological
Diversity has had a moratorium on them since 2000. Supporters
say they stop farmers using seeds they haven't paid for and that
their genes cannot spread to conventional crops, unlike other GM
seeds. But critics say that terminator seeds will make poor
farmers dependent on big companies for seeds.
The ETC group says that biotechnology companies have re-branded
terminator technology as a 'biosafety' tool and that this is the
interpretation the president's amended text reflects.
"We're worried that this kind of language is showing up in
several countries in the global South and we see it as a new
push by the biotech industry to overturn the moratorium on
terminator [seeds] at the Convention on Biological Diversity's
meeting next year in Japan," said Silvia Ribeiro of the ETC
Group in a press release.
Elizabeth Bravo of Acción Ecológica, an environmental
nongovernmental organisation in Ecuador, said in a press
release: "Unfortunately, the president's changes to the
legislation reflect the influence of his biotech
industry-friendly advisors … We could face a worst case
scenario: Ecuador enabling both GM contamination and suicide
seeds. That is a direct threat to agricultural biodiversity, an
essential basis for food sovereignty in Ecuador."
She added that this change to the law contradicts Ecuador's
constitution, adopted in 2008 (see Ecuador: new constitution
bans GMO and biotechnology), which declares Ecuador "free of GM
crops and seeds", unless the president and National Assembly
deem introducing GM crops and seeds is in the national interest.
Pro-GM advocacy group CropGen says assumptions that changing the
wording will lead to terminator technology are unfounded.
"Terminator in the sense implied has never been commercially
developed and, indeed, some major seed producers have promised
never to do so. It is unwarranted to jump to the conclusion
that, because it is suggested that the breaking of grains is not
necessary, a terminator mechanism must be implied," says Vivian
Moses, CropGen's chairman.
Eduardo Murillo, director of biotechnology at Ecuador's National
Institute of Agricultural Research, says that Ecuador is more
exposed to dangers such as terminator seeds because of the lack
of clear regulations governing GM material.
He says that risk analysis on a case-by-case basis should be
carried out. Otherwise people could use GM crops illegally and
with worse environmental consequences. "A country that knows is
a country that can make decisions," he says.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Environment has convened academics,
industrialists and consumers to prepare a National Biosafety
Plan. Lourdes Torres, molecular biologist and member of the
National Biosafety Committee, says this comes under the
Cartagena Protocol that requires countries to establish
legislation for transgenic control.
"I don't think anyone is sowing transgenic seeds in Ecuador.
That's what the constitution prohibits literally but it doesn't
explicitly preclude investigations and imports," she told
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