Brazil to assess impact of genetically modified corn
Date: 19-Jun-00
Country: BRAZIL
"We are going to make a detailed analysis of each of the varieties of corn," the
CTNBio president said to reporters Friday. The commission recommends national
policy on transgenics and could change its policy against the importation of the
super grains.
Brazil's poultry industry, the world's largest, is facing hungry birds and at
least a two million tonne shortfall in the national corn supply because of the
drought of the southern growing regions this season.
The situation is complicated by Brazil's principal supplier and trading partner
being an avid planter of GM-strains of corn and soybeans. Brazil is one of the
last bastions against the importation or planting of the super grains.
A judge in Rio Grande do Sul state lifted a preliminary injunction Friday barring
the entrance of Argentine corn into Brazil, only after the corn sat in port
customs over two weeks while the importer paid for the DNA tests to prove the
cargo's purity.
The global environmental group Greenpeace and Brazil's landless movement (MST)
are closely scrutinising corn shipments from Argentina and alerting federal
prosecutors of ships arrivals.
Federal prosecutors in the northeastern state of Pernambuco are beginning paper
work to bar the unloading of a shipment of 38,000 tonnes of Argentine corn
suspected of GM origin. The ship is do to arrive in port on Tuesday.
"We are not against the importation of Argentine grain, but presently Brazilian
law does not permit the entrance of GM-material," Federal prosecutor's office
spokesman Marcos Costas said.
"The court will allow the entrance of the corn if the importer can prove its
conventional origin, but it is the importers responsibility ultimately," Costas
said.
In March, when Greenpeace announced that a shipment of U.S. corn was heading for
a Brazilian port, the ship was rerouted at sea because it lacked documentation
proving its cargo was GM-free.
Two ships each with 26,000 tonnes of Argentine corn left the southern Brazilian
port of Sao Francisco on June 9 without unloading their holds because the were
alleged to have GM-corn.
