On 29th of October the Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture issued its list of the areas restricted for the planting of transgenic cotton for the next harvest season 2005/06.

This decision is part of the normal procedure which followed last spring’s controversial decision of the CNTBio, which is still being challenged by the Public Ministry and several Brazilian NGOs, to authorized the commercialization of a "conventional cotton containing up to 1% of transgenic traits".

Due to the complexity of the situation, it is important to understand the implications that the CNTbio’s decision might have on the future of the cotton industry of Brazil and why the latest Minister’s decision hardly confirms that this government is in favour of the transgenic paragdim.

Pressured by the cotton producers represented by the Abrapa which for years had been asking for the release of GE cotton varieties, the CNTbio’s decision was nothing else but a "fast tracking" of the approval to start planting any GE varieties despite the lack of a single registered transgenic variety on the National Seed Catalogue.  

Such a registration can only occur after an assessment process which can last from one to several years, depending on the conventional variety in which the transgenic trait has been inserted.

This decision opened the door to the illegal planting of conventional varieties containing up to 1% of transgenic trait. The standard begs the question: Who is going to verify whether there is 1% or more of a transgenic trait in a contaminated variety? If it did not mean that any transgenic variety is legally authorized to be planted, the national legislation would normally prohibit such a planting until properly registered.

"This Decision is legalizing the illegal planting of GE cotton varieties in Brazil," said Etienne Vernet, South American Director of the Polaris Institute.

The Minister of Agriculture's Decision which defined the areas authorized to be planting with contaminated conventional or illegal transgenic varieties hardly gave voluntary guidelines for the large cotton producers. These restricted areas are for most of them out of the cotton historical planting areas and will allegdly protect the wild cotton varieties.

"With this decision the Ministry of Agriculture recognized that transgenic contamination is real but instead of asking for a more thourough assesment of the transgenic gene flow that inevitably will cross with the wild cotton varieties, it gave a green light for cotton producers to plant any illegal transgenic varieties", says Etienne Vernet.

According to some sources for the next harvest 10% of the cotton planting areas could be planted with transgenic herbicide traits.

For more information : e.vernet@terra.com.br