London (12 September, 2005) – Once GM crops had been introduced into the U.S., they were rapidly adopted in other countries. Nowhere was there more enthusiasm than in Argentina where, because of their manifest benefits, GM herbicide-tolerant soybeans rapidly found favour with farmers.

Soybeans are one of the large scale global commodity crops used both for human consumption and for animal fodder. They are a cheap and efficient source of protein and oils, of major importance for feeding animals during the winter. More than 200 million tonnes were produced in 2004, with four countries providing the bulk of the world’s output: the U.S., 37%, Brazil, 28%, Argentina, 17% and China nearly 8%. Smaller quantities are grown elsewhere. The US, Brazil and Argentina are the major exporters, with the European Union one of the largest importing regions.

By 2004, more than 80% of US soybeans were GM and in Argentina more than 95%. Until 2003, the Brazilian authorities had not agreed to the cultivation of GM soybeans. But Brazilian farmers are just as enterprising as others. Observing the rapid uptake of the new technology by their colleagues across the border in Argentina, they began in increasing quantities to smuggle GM soybean seeds into Brazil where estimates of the total (illegal) content of GM varieties in the Brazilian crop were estimated to lie between 20% and 40%, a difficult number to determine exactly because this was an illegal activity.

In 2003 the Brazilian government permitted farmers to plant legally for one year; in 2004 this was extended for another year and it now seems unlikely to be reversed. There has been some reluctance to export GM soybeans through some of the ports in the ports in the north-east of the country handling supplies for Europe (1) but that, too, has now been overcome; the port of Paranagua is to have a new terminal specifically for the transgenic product (2).

Across the Atlantic, farmers in Spain have for several years been very successfully growing insect-resistant transgenic Bt-maize. Now that such cultivation is formally permitted throughout the European Union, sauce for the goose, not surprisingly, turns out also to be sauce for the gander. In 2005, farmers in south-western France, near the Spanish border, bought the seeds in Spain and are believed to have planted at least 1,000 hectares in France but, as there is now no requirement to report these plantings, it might have been a lot more (3). And, also because of no reporting requirement, anti-GM vandalism, common for GM trials in France, has been avoided.

It is likely that the French GM farmers will sell their produce in Spain where no differential GM and non-GM maize markets appear to have developed. King Canute has won again.

Source:

1. Paranagua port officials studying new GM soybean terminal. WORLD-GRAIN.COM (15 August 2005). (http://www.world-grain.com/feature_stories.asp?ArticleID=75400)

2. Deal paves way for Paranagua to ship GMO soy. Checkbiotech (3 September 2005). (http://www.checkbiotech.org/root/index.cfm?fuseaction=news&doc_id=11147&start=1&control=212&page_start=1&page_nr=101&pg=1)

3. Yves Miserey (6 Sept 2005). Dans le plus grand secret, des cultures de maïs transgénique ont été plantées dans le Sud-Ouest. Le Figaro (http://www.lefigaro.fr/sciences/20050906.FIG0248.html?152235)

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