Moderator’s Note: One of the most significant proven threats to the environment stems from the use of genetically engineered organisms, including the widespread near global deployment of transgenic crops. With recent news that both China and Russia are retreating from the embrace of commercial agricultural biotechnology, it seems that the momentum against GMOs is increasing. A major issue facing the non-GMO movement stems from the decades long work done on the Convention on Biodiversity (CBD) and the Cartegena Biosafety Protocols, which establish rules for the protection of biodiversity including threats posed by transgenic organisisms.
An international coalition of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) has issued a call for and end to the spread of transgenes – the snippets of bacterial, viral, and other genetic materials that are used to assemble GMOs. The coalition includes some of the most highly respected NGOs including Third World Network, ETC Group, and Red de Semillas (Seed Network).
Devon G. Peña, Ph.D.
"Memory is a moral obligation, all the time."
-J. Derrida
 |
Transgene escape. Courtesy of: ETC Group
|
Moderator’s Note: One of the most significant proven threats to the environment stems from the use of genetically engineered organisms, including the widespread near global deployment of transgenic crops. With recent news that both China and Russia are retreating from the embrace of commercial agricultural biotechnology, it seems that the momentum against GMOs is increasing. A major issue facing the non-GMO movement stems from the decades long work done on the Convention on Biodiversity (CBD) and the Cartegena Biosafety Protocols, which establish rules for the protection of biodiversity including threats posed by transgenic organisisms.
An international coalition of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) has issued a call for and end to the spread of transgenes – the snippets of bacterial, viral, and other genetic materials that are used to assemble GMOs. The coalition includes some of the most highly respected NGOs including Third World Network, ETC Group, and Red de Semillas (Seed Network).
I am reposting the press release that was circulated over the weekend through the movement networks. I note three important points about this call for action on transgene flow that are important for those of us struggling in the unique context of the USA, one of the major nations that has refused to sign on to the CBD or its Cartegena Biosafety Protocols. First, the emphasis is on the scientifically-established and irrefutable fact of gene flow, noting that “the release of genetically engineered plants that can persist and invade the environment or lead to transgene flow into native populations or local varieties at centres of origin and of genetic diversity.”
Second, the emphasis of the coalition is on the threats posed to “centres of origin and of genetic diversity” and this provides a key to the strategic shift that is emerging in the USA and focuses on resistance to the USDA’s so-called “Coexistence Policy” – a proposed administrative rule that seeks to impose a “pluralistic” model in which GMO, conventional, organic, and other farmers are to accept each other and get along. This is unacceptable to those of us who are plant breeders and seed savers, given the reality of gene flow. The challenge that we now need to address is how certain regions of the USA are also centers of origin and of genetic diversity – e.g., the Southwest is widely recognized as a valid extension of the Mesoamerican Vavilov center.
Third, the ETC group warns that while GURTs (genetic use restriction technologies) are currently banned under the Cartegena Protocols, there are a number of countries now discussing their use. I have reported on GURTs in previous posts: The advent of genetic use restriction technology (GURT) must be dutifully monitored because it represents an enduring threat to all seed savers and plant breeders. Readers will recall that Terminator technology makes seeds sterile. The only imaginable use of this technology is to protect transgenic seed patent owners.
Now GURT is being re-branded and re-packaged by Monsanto and other corporations as a method to contain gene flow between GMO and nonGMO plants. Monsanto’s statements allege that it is only trying to protect small and organic farmers from genetic contamination by using other genetically engineered organisms. The promise is really to keep large-scale monoculture growers tethered to the transgenics treadmill while attaining ‘plausible deniability’ in the event of litigation by organic farmers for damages arising from transgenic drift. See, for e.g., Suicide Seeds: Terminator Technology Remains Active Threat (2010), The Year in Food and Agriculture: Forget the Hungry; Farm Workers; Urban Agriculture; Terminators; SB1070…(2010), and The Politics of Seed (2012).
The original press release and report was posted to: Stop the Spread of Transgenes
 |
Terminator carrot. Source: joabbess
|
Stop the Spread
of Transgenes
of Transgenes
Start of an international call to stop genetically engineered organisms spreading into the environment!
Coalition calls for the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity and its Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety to take action
16 May 2014 - Today sees the start of an international call by a broad coalition of organisations to stop the spread of genetically engineered organisms into the environment. The initiative says that binding regulations must be implemented to prevent the release of genetically engineered plants that can persist and invade the environment or lead to transgene flow into native populations or local varieties at centres of origin and of genetic diversity. The organisations will be approaching the Parties of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and encouraging them to become actively involved. The CBD, under its Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, requests that effective measures are taken to protect biodiversity and prevent unintended transboundary movements of genetically engineered organisms.
The call is supported by Asociandote a Ecologistas en Accion (Spain) Econexus, Ecoropa, ETC Group, European Network of Scientists for Social and Environmental Responsibility (ENSSER), Friends of the Earth, Europe (FOE), Gene-ethical Network (Germany), Greenpeace International, Red de Semillas (Spain), Testbiotech (Germany), the Third World Network and the Union de Cientificos Comprometidos con la Sociedad, UCCS (Mexico) and others. Further supporters will be asked to join.
“There are already several well-documented examples of genetically engineered plants spreading uncontrolled into wild populations and ecosystems. There are also cases of repeated transgene presence in landraces or local varieties of crop plants such as maize in Mexico and rice in China”, says Elena Alvarez-Buylla from Mexico. “There is a great risk that we will not be able to go back to the original biodiversity without the bio-active transgenes, which can profoundly alter the dynamics of wild and cultivated native varieties.” Alvarez-Buylla is a leading Mexican biologist, currently travelling in Europe and a Member of the Unión de Científicos Comprometidos con la Sociedad, UCCS (Mexico). She has been involved in several research projects that showed that genetically engineered plants had contaminated native populations and regional varieties in Mexico.
The Third World Network (TWN) has followed the negotiations on the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety very closely for many years. The international organisation is very concerned about the long-term impact of uncontrolled gene flow of transgenes into the environment: “Article 17 of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety requires Parties to prevent or minimise the risks of unintentional transboundary movements of genetically engineered organisms, but the current trend of an increasing spread of these organisms into the environment enhances the potential for genetically engineered plants to move across borders”, says Lim Li Ching for TWN. “The precautionary principle can only be implemented if genetically engineered organisms can be retrieved from the environment in case of emergency. This becomes impossible once transgenes move and accumulate in wild and landrace varieties.”
 |
| Mexican non-GMO protestor. Courtesy of: notifamanacional |
The organisations signing up to the call are aiming to mobilise further support from civil society and will bring the issue to the meetings of the Parties to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety and the Convention on Biological Diversity, in September/October 2014 in South Korea.
Contacts:
Elena Alvarez-Buylla, Laboratorio de Genetica Molecular, Desarrollo y Evolucion de Plantas Instituto de Ecologia (Dpto de Ecologia Funcional), Mexico, eabuylla@gmail.com
Silvia Ribeiro, ETC Group Latin America Director, grupoetc@etcgroup.
Maria Carrascosa Garcia, Red de Semillas, Telf. +34650102339 maria_
No comments:
Post a Comment