Seeds of Doubt, Brazil is the focus of a controversy over the use of genetically altered soybean seeds made by Missouri-based Monsanto.
Published: Thursday, June 3, 1999
KATHERINE ELLISON KNIGHT RIDDER FOREIGN SERVICE
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL
In the rolling green hills of southern Brazil, eager farmers are breaking
the law to buy sacks of the amazing new U.S.-made soybean seeds,
smuggled in from Argentina.
''We've got to lower our costs,'' said Anatoli Fauth Mello, head of the
farmers union in Passo Fundo in Brazil's largest soybean-producing
state, Rio Grande do Sul. ''How else do you compete in the globalized
economy?''
By contrast, in Brazil's cities, there are newspaper editorials with
headlines like ''Frankenstein Food.''
Brazil has become a new focus in the debate over genetically altered
plants. It is the only major soybean-growing nation not yet using
Roundup Ready ''engineered'' seed produced by the Missouri-based
chemical giant Monsanto. Monsanto and many farmers say the seed,
which is resistant to Monsanto's famous herbicide Roundup, sharply
cuts production costs, because it's easier and cheaper to kill weeds and
other competitors to the crop.
In this, the world's second-leading soybean producer, the federal
government has been slow to allow so-called transgenic seeds. Some
politicians want to ban their use on health or trade grounds; farmers are
divided.
U.S. firms are eager to sell gene-altered seeds here, but some growers
believe that selling ''uncontaminated'' soybeans and other farm
products gives them a competitive edge in Europe, where fear of the
alleged health risks of genetically altered food is common. This
enormous South American nation -- bigger than the 48 contiguous
United States -- harvested 31 million metric tons of soybeans this year
and exported $4.7 billion in soy and soybean products. So the potential
effect is great on world markets -- and on the food available to
consumers around the globe.
''This is our only chance to preserve an important market,'' said Jose
Hermeto Hoffman, secretary of agriculture for Rio Grande do Sul.
The federal government repeated its position this week: Go ahead, with
limits. Roundup Ready soybean seed may become available to farmers
by the end of this year, and plants will be monitored for the next five
years. All prepared foods that include ''engineered'' soybeans will have
to be labeled, said Jose Roberto da Silva, a spokesman for the
National Technical Bio-Security Commission, which decided last year
to permit sales of the seeds. These conditions are much stricter than
those in the United States, where labeling of gene-altered foods isn't
required.
But the controls haven't ended the controversy. In the past several
weeks, there has been a flurry of lawsuits. President Fernando
Henrique Cardoso's cabinet has been divided; he's in favor, but his new
environment minister is opposed.
Gene-altered seeds are a big issue in Brazil's major farming states,
especially in Rio Grande do Sul, where a newly elected leftist state
government is trying to create a transgenic-free zone.
Dozens of transgenic experiments -- some of those Monsanto's -- were
burned this year after the Rio Grande do Sul government determined
they hadn't complied with bio-security laws. Hoffman said his state's
officials want to ban modified seeds because unmodified crops could
be contaminated.
Hoffman said there's also the issue of farmers' independence. Roundup
Ready seeds are patented, and in the United States, farmers sign
agreements with Monsanto not to save seeds from one harvest for the
next crop.
''We think that makes the farmers slaves,'' Hoffman said.
Lawmakers in at least seven other Brazilian states are pondering bills to
ban or sharply limit the technology, according to the environmental
group Greenpeace, which is campaigning against engineered food.
Critics maintain too little is known about the safety of gene-altered
farming and that new studies raise disturbing questions. A Cornell
University team studying the effect of gene-altered corn on butterflies
reported last month that pollen from a gene-altered plant can harm
non-pest species.
The critics say research also suggests that plants engineered to release
their own insecticides can lead to the development of resistant insects.
Environmentalists in particular worry that plants geared to resist
herbicides may encourage farmers to use the toxics less discriminately.
Monsanto says Roundup Ready seeds and soybeans are safe.
Washington-based Monsanto spokeswoman Lisa Watson said the
product has been reviewed in detail by U.S. and international regulators
and found ''wholesome and safe.''
Contrary to critics' views, she said, Roundup Ready ''provides huge
benefits for farmers who care about the environment'' because
Roundup herbicide breaks down over time and is unlikely to move into
ground water.
Company studies, Watson said, found that Roundup Ready crops
require less herbicide, not more, in part because farmers can use just
Roundup instead the three herbicides used otherwise.
This year, about 40 percent of the U.S. soybean crop -- including
Minnesota's -- will be Roundup Ready, with Americans consuming the
genetically altered beans in processed foods from tofu to bread, salad
dressings, baby food and chocolate. For Minnesota farmers, soybeans
were a $1.7 billion cash crop last year.
The technology is hugely profitable for Monsanto, for which Roundup
herbicide and Roundup Ready soybean, canola and cotton seeds are
rapidly growing star contributors to its $8.6 billion annual sales of
agricultural, nutrition, consumer and pharmaceutical products. Jim
Wilbur, a New York-based analyst for the Salomon Smith Barney
investment banking house, said Monsanto's Brazilian sales of Roundup
Ready soybean seed and Roundup herbicide could reach $350 million
a year.
Still, the image of engineered food has taken a couple of strong hits
recently, particularly in Europe. On May 17, the British Medical
Association called for a moratorium on using the technology, which it
said has been insufficiently studied.
Leading European supermarkets, such as Tesco in Britain and
Carrefour in France, have said they want transgenic-free products.
Burger King, McDonald's and Nestle have promised to stop using
genetically modified foods in England. In April, a group of leading
European food sales executives visited Brazil to try to guarantee a
supply of unmodified soybeans.
Still, many farmers are eager to take what the critics term the risk. And
if the smuggling continues in Rio Grande do Sul, Hoffman's hopes of a
transgenic-free zone may soon be moot.
Mello, the farmer's union head, says 20 percent of the fields around
Passo Fundo are already planted with transgenic seeds, which he said
farmers bought from door-to-door salesmen for up to $120 a sack,
enough for less than 3 acres.
''Next year, no matter what, we're going to plant it,'' he vowed.
''We've found we can cut our expenses by up to 50 percent. It's going
to make our lives better.''
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