Yet more bad news for AgrEvo. I've got to give AgrEvo credit for sticking to it, and encouraging more open discussion in Europe.
Thursday April 22, 8:45 pm Eastern Time
Brazil govt destroys AgrEvo transgenic rice crop
By Phil Stewart
SAO PAULO, April 22 (Reuters) - Brazil's government said on Thursday it started destroying a test plot of genetically modified rice operated by the local unit of AgrEvo, the agrochemical joint venture between Germany's Hoechst AG (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: HOEG.F) and Schering AG (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: SCHG.F).
Government officials said they took action after AgrEvo failed to comply with federal safety codes governing the test crop, located in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul.
''The whole rice crop will be destroyed. The secretary is already on site and is overseeing the operation,'' said a spokeswoman for the state's Agriculture Secretary Jose Hermeto Hoffamann.
Authorities began ripping the crop out of the ground at 11:00 local time (1400 GMT), she said. The crop would later be burned.
AgrEvo officials did not immediately return phone calls. But in a previous interview, Andre Abreu, who head's AgrEvo's local biotechnology program, said the test plot was a key step in the company's long-term plan to sell LibertyLink rice in Brazil.
Brazil's Commission for Biological Security (CTNBio) broke the country's historic ban on transgenic crops last year by approving the safety of Monsanto Co.'s (MTC - news) transgenic Roundup Ready soybeans.
But the action opened a floodgate on controversy in Latin America's agricultural giant, where environmental groups led by Greenpeace have teamed up with farmers worried about losing business to transgenic-wary European consumers. Such genetically modified crops have been dubbed ''Frankenstein food'' in Europe.
CTNBio, which has been criticized for being too friendly to multinationals, this week gave its first-ever authorization to destroy a transgenic test crop. It argued AgrEvo did not provide the necessary covering or buffer zone to prevent contamination of nearby non-genetically modified crops.
AgrEvo is widely expected to be the next company to win CTNBio's safety approval for its transgenic LibertyLink corn, which company officials hope will make its way off test plots and onto commercial farms in 2000.
Rio Grande do Sul's government, which is trying to ban all transgenic crops, previously threatened to destroy the 2-hectare AgrEvo test plot as well as Monsanto's 435-hectare plot, where the local unit is reproducing herbicide-resistant Roundup Ready soybean seeds.
Monsanto's local subsidiary is currently harvesting its Roundup Ready seeds, but it is still wading through the legal process of registering them for domestic sale.
Monsanto expects sales to begin later this year. |
