GM corn varieties MON 810 (from Monsanto) and BT11 (from Syngenta) are authorized in Uruguay. They are both resistant to plagues. Glyphosate-resistant RR soy also produced by Monsanto had been previously approved (in 1999).

The varieties approved now are: GA21 and NK603 (the two by Monsanto) and resistant to glyphosate. These are the first varieties approved in Uruguay in the last seven years, after an 18-month moratorium on the approval of new GM crops was lifted in 2008. “The news is that we will now have more herbicide-resistant corn varieties”, told scientist Pablo Galeano to Real World Radio. He works at the School of Chemistry of the University of the Republic and led a scientific study two years ago that detected GM contamination in non GM corn fields.

One of the most concerning issues for REDES-FoE Uruguay, is related with the public consultation processes carried out in order to approve the new GM crops. Galeano explained that these processes used to be open. They would take place in face-to-face meetings. “This time everything was done through the Internet, with very little dissemination of the consultation phases, and what is even worse with many restrictions in terms of the information provided by the website of the Ministry of Livestock and Agriculture.

In fact, several experts in charge of assessing the behavior of the five new GM varieties warned they were given very little time to do their job.

Galeano, a researcher of the University of the Republic and REDES-FoE announced that during the process for the approval of the five new GM corn varieties, the representatives of the Ministries of Public Health who read the toxicological assessments submitted by the corporations, considered the information was insufficient. But the Risk Management Commissions said the Ministry’s report was preliminary and decided to act based on the authorizations made in other countries, saying there was no toxicological risk. “REDES made several remarks. We even mentioned the fact that some countries did find toxicological risks in the same GM crops, but our comments were not taken into account”, said Galeano. “This is pretty serious because it shows there is a policy that aims to move forward in the approval of new events regardless of the fact that there is uncertainty about the possible effects on the public health in the long term”.

Galeano mentioned that the members of the Risk Management Commission said it was very expensive to carry out environmental impact studies of new GM events. For that reason new research is not done and they rely on the information provided by the corporations.

A research carried out by the schools of Agronomy, Chemistry and Sciences of the University of the Republic, at the request of REDES-FoE Uruguay, certified in October of 2009 the GM contamination in the country in non GM corn crops.

Real World Radio asked Galeano about the risks of GM contamination with the newly approved varieties. He said “in the medium term this GM contamination will affect native corn. Since the producers do not sell everything they sow, since they keep part of it as seed, they will begin to reproduce that (contaminated) seed and little by little we will begin seeing GM contamination in the traditional varieties”.

The regulation that provides that fields planted with GM crops should keep a 250 meter distance from conventional crop fields has just been lifted in Uruguay. The Risk Management Commission argued that the previous regulation was hard to implement, as well as the control over its compliance. The farmers who want to protect their conventional production should warn the Commission, which will visit the farmers but has not set a mechanisms to answer to their concern yet. “It is like assuming there will be GM crops all over, whether you want it or not”, said Galeano.

Photo: http://revista-amauta.org