Biosafety protocol alive, but restricted
IPS, March 18, 2006 (Brazil)

The Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety "is alive," celebrated the delegates to the Third Meeting of the Parties to the Protocol (MOP3). The delegates approved a requirement for clear labeling of cross-border shipments containing living modified organisms (LMOs) in products for direct use as food or feed, or for processing. Products that have been clearly identified and separated as transgenics will have to carry the label "contains LMOs". But the delegates admitted the wording "may contain LMOs" in cases in which the presence of transgenics has not been documented and identified from origin.
The Brazilian proposal recommended a four-year transitional period to allow countries to gradually adopt mandatory labeling. But the negotiators expanded that period to six years, and inserted an element of uncertainty.
The alternative was a failure to approve rules for transboundary shipments of transgenics, which are key to "giving life" to the Protocol, said delegates.
Full item: http://www.GEinfo.org.nz/042006/01.html

GURTS moratorium maintained
Bridges Trade BioRes, Vol. 6 No. 6, April 3, 2006 (Brazil)

At the COP8, many developing countries and civil society groups geared up to fight language in the draft decision on genetic restriction use technologies (GURTS, i.e. technologies that can be used to genetically alter seeds to be sterile and thus prevent reuse) that they feared could undermine the current moratorium on GURTS adopted at COP-5. The controversy centred on text which would allow for case-by-case risk assessments of GURTS. While the text was supported by New Zealand, Australia, Switzerland and industry groups, the G-77/China strongly opposed the language which they warned could open the door to field trials.
After relatively short discussions in a 'Friends of the Chair' group, the reference to case-by-case risk assessments was dropped from the final decision.
Language related to GM trees [also] proved particularly controversial. Some countries, such as the EU, Ghana and Kenya advocated a precautionary approach to the use of GM trees. Iran and several civil society groups called for an outright moratorium. The final decision recommends Parties take a precautionary approach.
Full item: http://www.GEinfo.org.nz/042006/02.html

Govt looks at sterile seed technology
TVNZ, March 23, 2006 (New Zealand)

The Sustainability Council says Cabinet papers released under the Official Information Act show the government is seeking the option to authorise field trials for terminator technology [that] genetically modifies plants to make them incapable of reproduction.
The[y] say poor nations would suffer if countries made their own decisions about whether to trial GM plants that produce sterile seeds. In addition Rural Women New Zealand says GURTs could threaten the livelihood of millions of farmers who depend on saving seed from previous years' crops and can't afford to buy new seed each year.
The Green Party environment spokesperson Nandor Tanczos says the government's attitude is irresponsible. He says the problem with these seeds is that once they have been grown anywhere, they are a risk everywhere.
Full item: http://www.GEinfo.org.nz/042006/03.html

Half a million sign Terminator protest
Khaleej Times Online, March 18, 2006 (India)

About half a million farmers from Southern states of India have urged the Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh to protect country's agro biodiversity against the new and serious threat from the Terminator seeds technology.
Stressing that seed and agriculture has always represented life in India, P.V. Sateesh, the coordinator of South Against Genetic Engineering said that Terminator completely contradicts this image and brings death through seeds. "Seed is the symbol of reproduction for us. But Terminator seeds offer sterility."
Full item: http://www.GEinfo.org.nz/042006/04.html

Brazil backs stronger GMO export labeling
Reuters, March 14, 2006 (Brazil)

Brazilian exports of GMOs, such as soybeans, will bear the label "contains GMOs" within four years, the environment ministry said Monday. Brazil's support of the stronger labeling position marks a shift in its position from the weaker "may contain GMOs" - as is called for by the Cartagena Protocol.
Under the proposal, Brazil's grain export sector will have four years to install infrastructure to segregate GMO from conventional grains and set up GMO labeling and testing procedures. Until that time, "may contain GMOs" will be used on GMO exports, the environment ministry said.
Full item: http://www.GEinfo.org.nz/042006/05.html

Lawmakers push ban on GM field testing
ABC News, March 2, 2006 (Hawaii)

State senators have advanced two bills putting limits on the genetic modification of taro and coffee, crops that are key to Hawaii's identity. The bills would ban until 2011 the field testing of strains of both plants that have been engineered or spliced with the genes of other organisms.
The taro bill also would place a five-year ban on genetically modifying Hawaiian varieties of the plant, whose roots are made into poi, one of the state's best-known foods. In Hawaiian folklore, taro is considered to be a sacred ancestor of Native Hawaiians, linking them to island soil.
Full item: http://www.GEinfo.org.nz/042006/06.html

Co. wants stockfeed GE corn approved for people
NZ Herald, March 24, 2006 (New Zealand)

Global seed producer Monsanto has applied for two new GM crops used as animal feed to be approved in human foods.
[It] wants approval, as a small amount may enter human foods by accident, but experts warn that [then], nothing will stop the crops from being used widescale in food production.
Green MP Sue Kedgley said it was a "sneaky" move that gives indirect approval for the crops to come into the human food supply. "Why give blanket approval for crops that have only been approved for animals to come into our food supply? ... If even America has only approved it for use in stockfeed, the very last thing ... we should be doing is saying, we'll just allow it to turn up in our food."
Full item: http://www.GEinfo.org.nz/042006/07.html

The war over 'suicide seeds'
The Calgary Herald, March 13, 2006 (Canada)

They're the so-called terminators - a new breed of seed designed to produce plants incapable of reproducing.
The seeds were invented to ensure farmers of GM crops buy seed every year rather than growing from their own seed stock. Industry giants such as Syngenta and DuPont, which together account for almost 20 per cent of the world seed trade, have already taken out patents on the technology, which is still in development. Terminator seeds are also meant to stop GM crops from contaminating neighbouring fields - an increasingly common problem in North America.
But critics fear terminator's sterility trait will, like other traits from GM crops, escape into nature, threatening the world's food supply. They also fear the cost of buying seed every year will break the backs of farmers, especially in the developing world. "The companies that caused the contamination - who told us there would be no contamination because they had good scientific practices - are now saying, 'Trust us, we've got the solution to the problem we caused,'" retorts Pat Mooney, of the Ottawa-based ETC Group, a conservation watchdog organization.
Harry Collins, a geneticist who heads the sterile-seed effort at the US-based Delta and Pine Land Company, which pioneered the process in 1998, says fears the sterility trait will spread are far-fetched, and points out such scenarios are purely "theoretical" since the seeds have yet to be field-tested.
Six years ago, a report for the UN Convention on Biological Diversity effectively banned the seeds, calling on governments to block the field-testing and sale of any form of the technology, pending research into its implications.
Canada has played a prominent part in opposing the ban: Critics say the blanket ban was finally overturned this January after Australia, Canada and New Zealand, successfully pushed for evaluations to be allowed on a case-by-case basis.
Lucy Sharratt of the Ottawa-based Ban Terminator campaign argues that "terminator wouldn't work 100 per cent." Plants in which the technology fails could introduce impaired reproductive systems into nature, she says. Collins concedes safety is a concern. "I'm not willing to concede that it's the only important thing, but it is important that we have a high rate of sterility."
Full item: http://www.GEinfo.org.nz/042006/08.html

Syngenta fined over GM tests in Brazil
SwissInfo, March 23, 2006 (Brazil)

Swiss agrochemicals giant Syngenta has been hit with a $461,000 fine for planting transgenic seeds close to a protected nature reserve. The company strongly denies any wrongdoing and says it will appeal against the penalty imposed by the country's environmental protection agency, Ibama.
Ibama says Syngenta broke the law by planting 30 acres of transgenic soy six kilometres from Iguaçu National Park, inside a ten-kilometre exclusion zone. Syngenta refutes this, saying the GM crop is outside the protected area. [It] stresses that it has all the necessary legal permits from the National Technical Commission for Biosecurity for its experiments.
Full item: http://www.GEinfo.org.nz/042006/09.html