US-Latin Accord on GM crops
a timely warning for Australia

Scientists in the US are suggesting that it may soon be 
impossible for the US to guarantee that any portion of its food 
supply is free of genetically modified organisms. The following 
article by the ETC Group* serves as a timely warning as the 
Australian Government pushes ahead with its plans for a Free 
Trade Agreement with the USA, under which Australia may well have 
signed away its right to control the entry of US food 
products.

In January 2004 Monsanto announced that it would abandon 
genetically modified (GM) seed sales in Argentina because farmers 
were illegally saving patented seed, making it difficult for the 
company to collect royalties on proprietary seed.

Over the past decade, Argentina has been presented as the biotech 
industry's shining success story in the global South because 
Argentine farmers were early adopters of Monsanto's Roundup Ready 
soybeans. Today, Argentina devotes more area to GM crops than any 
other country except the United States.

Argentina is the world's third largest producer of soybeans, and 
Monsanto's GM seed technology accounted for an estimated 96 
percent of the total soybean area planted in Argentina last year. 
But now Monsanto complains that widespread "seed piracy" (seed 
saving) has pilfered the company's profits and soured the 
Argentine success story.

One seed industry executive in Argentina warned that Monsanto's 
action was an important message for the entire seed sector: "This 
is the first warning sign that all new technologies will abandon 
us if intellectual property rights are not respected."

Government offers handouts to gene giants

Argentina's government is offering to ease Monsanto's pain by 
creating a "royalties fund" to help Monsanto and other companies 
recoup investments in biotech crops that are threatened by "black 
market" sales.

The Argentine Government proposes to create a "global royalties" 
fund by levying a tax on soybean and wheat sales that will 
generate an estimated US$34 million annually.

The proposal must first be approved by the Argentine Congress. 
"It's a dream come true for Monsanto because the government of 
Argentina is enforcing monopoly patents by taxing seed sales, 
shifting all of the burden and expense to farmers and the 
public", said Silvia Ribeiro of ETC Group.

In Kuala Lumpur, Adolfo Boy of Grupo de Reflexisn Rural, who has 
been monitoring the impacts of Monsanto's GM soybeans asks, "Why 
should public resources be used to protect the patents of 
transnational seed companies like Monsanto? Governments should 
protect farmers, not penalize them!"

In North America, Monsanto is vigorously prosecuting seed-saving 
farmers, but that approach is costly and the company is widely 
perceived as a corporate bully for suing its customers. To avoid 
messy lawsuits, high-priced lawyers and bad publicity, Monsanto 
and other Gene Giants hope to see the Argentine model adopted 
everywhere they do business.

This is a prime example of New Enclosures", explains Hope Shand 
of ETC Group. "Patent monopolies are unnecessary if the State is 
willing to act as the gene police and collect royalties from 
farmers.

"The Argentine proposal is a dangerous precedent because the Gene 
Giants are pushing hard to open new markets — especially in the 
developing world. The Argentine model means that Monsanto could 
even sell GM seeds in countries that don't recognize patents or 
don't enforce them — as long as the government can be convinced 
to collect fees for Monsanto."

Paying the high price of monoculture

There are many unanswered questions. Why is the cash-strapped 
Argentine Government willing to go to the mat for Monsanto? Is 
dependency on GM soya so overwhelming that the Argentine 
Government is bending to biotech blackmail?

In January Brazil announced that it would also bow to biotech 
industry pressure. In 2003 the Brazilian Government over-ruled 
popular opposition and legalised the planting of GM soybeans for 
the 2003-04 season. Following the announcement, Monsanto 
threatened to sue Brazilian farmers who were planting black 
market GM soybean seed.

Under an agreement negotiated in January 2004 between farmers in 
the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul and Monsanto, royalties 
will be charged by the purchasers of harvested GM soybeans, both 
exporters and crushers.

As if to lessen the blow to Farmers' Rights, Monsanto has pledged 
to donate one percent of the seed royalties it collects to crop 
research in Rio Grande do Sul — a cheap way for Monsanto to 
further influence agricultural research in Brazil.

Biosafety Protocol threatened

The issue of State-subsidised GM monopolies set off alarm bells 
for governments meeting in Kuala Lumpur at the end of last month 
for the first-ever meeting of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety 
— the UN agreement governing cross-border trade in genetically 
modified organisms. The Protocol has been ratified by 86 
countries and the European Union (notably, the US Government has 
not joined).

Not surprisingly, the US and other exporters of GM seeds were 
lobbying vigorously in Kuala Lumpur to eliminate any references 
to the social and economic impacts of GM seeds, or liability for 
damages caused by GM contamination.

But despite their best efforts, the Gene Giants and pro-biotech 
governments have been unable to avoid bad news about GM 
contamination.

Last month in Kuala Lumpur, civil society activists and farmers' 
organisations reminded governments that it is over two years 
since traces of DNA from GM maize seeds (illegal to plant in 
Mexico) contaminated traditional maize varieties grown by Mexican 
farmers.

The genetic pollution caused by GM maize in Mexico is especially 
alarming because Mesoamerica is a major centre of genetic 
diversity for maize. Rather than stop contamination and demand 
accountability from the Gene Giants, the Mexican Government 
recently entered into an agreement with the US and Canada that 
condones high levels of GM contamination in food and grain 
shipments.

A Trilateral Agreement between the US, Mexico and Canada allows 
shipments to contain up to five percent of genetically modified 
organisms (GMOs) before they are considered transgenic and 
subject to regulations being developed under the Cartagena 
Protocol.

"The US-inspired Trilateral Accord makes a mockery of the 
Cartagena Protocol", warned Silvia Ribeiro of ETC Group. "To 
accept levels of contamination up to 5%, in effect, allows 
imports of transgenic products without any evaluation of risk. 
This type of Accord, which is now being promoted as a model for 
the entire Western Hemisphere, is designed to benefit the Gene 
Giants and accelerate GM contamination worldwide."

Mexico announced in Kuala Lumpur the ban of releases into the 
environment of maize manipulated for non-food uses (such as 
pharmaceutical or industrial). "But this is meaningless if Mexico 
allows five percent GM presence in the imports, which are the 
main source of contamination", Ribeiro added.

Seed contamination raises new patent issues

A new report released this week by the US-based Union of 
Concerned Scientists, suggests why the US Government is so 
anxious to relax standards for shipments of GM products and 
thwart trans-boundary regulations for GMOs. The new study, Gone 
to Seed, reveals that non-GM seeds in the United States have 
become widely contaminated with engineered DNA.
(The study is available at: http://www.ucsusa.org)

Laboratory tests revealed that more than two-thirds of 36 
conventional (non GM) maize, soy and canola seeds contained 
traces of DNA from genetically engineered crop varieties.

Although levels of contamination were not high, the findings 
suggest federal regulations are not working and that it may soon 
be impossible for the US to guarantee that any portion of its 
food supply is free of genetically modified organisms, a 
situation that could seriously disrupt the export of US foods, 
seeds and oils (and sound the death knell for organic farmers).

If governments agree to accept high levels of GM contamination in 
world trade, then the Gene Giants are given free licence to 
contaminate farmers' fields with foreign DNA protected by 
proprietary patents. The Gene Giants are then positioned to 
demand that governments collect taxes from farmers who are 
illegally using black market seeds — or permit introduction of 
the controversial Terminator technology — genetic seed 
sterilisation.

This is biotech's triple whammy:

1) high contamination tolerance; 2) government's tax farmers to 
generate patent royalties; and 3) governments are forced to 
accept Terminator to avoid patent policing.

The triple whammy scenario underscores the need for governments 
to firmly reject the Trilateral Accord and press for a ban on 
Terminator technology.

* * *

*ETC, the Action Group on Erosion, Technology and 
Concentration — formerly RAFI —is an international civil 
society organisation headquartered in Canada. The ETC group is 
dedicated to the advancementof cultural and ecological diversity 
and human rights.

http://www.etcgroup.org