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Seed Tribunal held in India A Seed Tribunal in Bangalore India concluded on 25 September 2000 with the Verdict of the Jury that included Justice V. R. Krishna Iyer (Retd. Judge, Supreme Court of India) and Prof. Utsa Patnaik (Senior Professor of JNU, New Delhi). The Tribunal preceeded the Asian Seed Conference and a rally against the monopolisation of seed and corporatisation of agriculture. The Verdict of the Jury and their 12 recommendations to protect the Seed sovereignty, food Security and rights of the farmers begins "For the two days we have listened carefully to testimonies and evidences from farmers and experts, related to the crisis of the seed and the crisis of farmer survival from different part of India and abroad. The accounts given as evidence by the large number of relatives (widows, son, brother) of farmers who killed themselves and given directly by the farmers who sold an organ for money, all point to a common scenario. This in brief is cumulating debt owing to high cost and substandard seed and other inputs pushed by companies and their agents for their own profits. "The World Bank Seed Act of 1988 opened up the seed sector to the MNC control and domination of Private Industries ......has played a major role in pushing farmers into debt, suicides and trade of body parts. Low interest, agricultural credit system have disappeared and farmers have been pushed to borrow at high interest rates from the same agents who also push seed and chemicals. The MNCs have taken over the control over India's seed supply without any responsibility and liability. "The farmers were persuaded to go in for growing more high risk, alleged high yielding varieties of cotton, chillies etc. ....... The farmer tries to repay debt by selling land, selling even his body organ; but when cumulated debt exceeds all hope of repayment he is driven to suicide. An organized racket appears to have developed to exploit the farmers distress to obtain organs for transplantation. "The burden of high prices of the corporate seed combined with high unreliability and unaccountability will further increase with G.E. seeds. Patent and IPR's regime as system of monopoly control will further aggravate the severe crisis the farmers are facing. The Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) regime of the World Trade Organisation (W.T.O.) will therefore create conditions for a deepening of the economic crisis for the farming community in India. Testimonies relate to Unreliable Seeds Supply: The increasing cost of chemicals and menace of spurious chemicals, Low Income/ Low production: Increasing loans and high interest rate (around 36%) Increasing Debts and Sale of Body Parts, Suicide: The Last Resort New Threats to Farmers Survival - Genetically Engineered High Risks Seeds "The Tribunal heard evidence from farmers from the US, Canada and Europe of how the yield of genetically modified crops is a myth. GM crops are displaying a "yield drop." In the U.S. genetically modified cotton crop also failed and farmers sued Monsanto. ........Genetically engineered Canalo has become a major noxious weed in Canada invading fields, genetically contaminating and polluting non-genetically modified seeds. Farmers have been forced to use more chemicals contrary to the myth of reduced use of agrochemicals with genetically modified technologies......... Instead of paying compensation to farmers, corporations like Monsanto are suing farmers like Percy Schmeiser of Saskatchewan, Canada whose Canola field was contaminated by Monsanto's genetically modified Canola for "intellectual theft" of the genetically engineered seeds. The evidence of Percy Schmeiser shows that patent and Intellectual Property Rights requires being forced through WTO/ Trips must inevitably turn farming into a police state. Intellectual Property on Seeds and Monopolisation of Life The inherent right of the farmers to save and exchange seeds is under threat. The proposed Plant Variety Protection Act fails to protect the rights of the small and marginal farmers. The Patents (Second) Amendment Act 1999 provides for patenting on life and promotes biopiracy of our indigenous knowledge and resources. Seeds of Hope Though despair but farmers are finding ways and means for fighting back the corporatisation of agricul/ture. Already in Garhwal Himalayas in India and the Andes in Latin America the people have declared GE free, IPR free and chemical free zones. PlaNet urges all New Zealanders to join in the campaign for a GE-FreeNZ . Novartis Withdraws "Functional" Food From UK Aviva product range abandoned after less than a year. Novartis has announced that it has withdrawn the "Aviva" food range of products from sale in the UK. Novartis, which produces genetically modified seeds, as well as medical products, launched the range of products in November 1999 with a 20 million pound marketing campaign. Novartis claimed that the "Aviva" functional foods offered health benefits to consumers including benefits for bones, heart and digestion. Products in the range included cereal bars, biscuits, a hot chocolate drink and a juice drink. Marcus Williamson of gmfoodnews.com, states: "Novartis made several mistakes in launching the Aviva range, at a time when the public is especially conscious of the ingredients used in food. Several Aviva products contained soya, which consumers are avoiding because of the GM connection, and Aspartame, the artificial sweetener, which has according to the US Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) 92 possible side effects, including death.Furthermore, the ingredients were not comprehensively labelled, so that the consumer could not tell if the vegetable oil and vegetable fat being used were from a GM suspect source." In an e-mail received at the gmfoodnews.com offices, Yvan Deurbroeck of Novartis Switzerland, states: "We are currently reviewing the situation so that we can come back with a more powerful consumer proposal in the future." Marcus Williamson responds: "It is to be hoped that the next offerings from Novartis will not contain GM suspect ingredients, will not contain the artificial sweetener Aspartame or any "E" numbers and that their ingredients will be comprehensively labelled. If functional foods are to have a future in the UK, they will need to fit with the demands of the health conscious consumer for really healthy food, without the additives and with labelling that shows the real origin of the ingredients used. In fact, if Novartis is serious about launching products for consumer health, it should use all organic ingredients." GE pines hearing in Rotorua Public hearings for one of the most strongly opposed GE proposals -modified pine trees- will be held in Rotorua over three days from Nov 1. The ERMA said it planned to stage the hearings there after receiving over 700 submissions, including 142 from overseas. Most were opposed to the proposal, with just five in support. Starlink Unlinked The US GE Taco Wars claimed another victim when Aventis announced that it was halting sales of Starlink corn hybrids for 2001. According to Aventis, which sells Starlink as "the next generation of Bt corn", the sales stoppage "is aimed at restoring public confidence in our companyıs efforts to assure that StarLink corn grain does not enter food channels." Starlink was planted on over 300,000 acres this year. It is unclear how Aventis will handle farmers who have already ordered or might have 2001 contracts that involve Starlink seed. So far the company has only implemented a "stop sale" of the varieties. Aventis has also announced that it will take steps to make sure the 2000 harvest of Starlink corn does not get into the human food chain, although it has yet to describe this process, and what impact it will have on farmers, in detail. Since multiple genetic tests recently confimed that the corn, which is not approved for human consumption, found its way into supermarket shelves, tens of millions of Taco Bell store brand and restaurant taco shells have been recalled or replaced with new product. More recalls may follow. Azteca Milling, the Texas-based company which provided corn for the shells, has not publicly disclosed information about its other clients, who may also be selling contaminated corn products in the US and possibly Mexico. No other Azteca buyers have identified themselves publicly. Monsanto's Transgenic Cottons Can Make Gonorrhoea Untreatable According to UK Government Sources The information is in the archives of the UK Advisory Committee on Novel Foods and Processes (ACNFP) which vats applications for commercial approval of novel foods and animal feed. The strongly worded advice against the approval of Monsanto's transgenic cotton seed, was given in February 1999 (but was only published earlier this year by the UK Ministry of agriculture, Fisheries and Food). At around the same time, the European Union rejected Monsanto's application for the sale of the transgenic cottons in Europe. The aad gene, which confers resistance to the antibiotics streptomycin and spectinomycin, is present in both Bollgard (insect-protected) and Roundup Ready (herbicide tolerant) transgenic cottons. The bacterium responsible for gonorrhoea, Neisseria gonorrhoeae, could acquire the aad gene from transgenic plant materials during infection of the mouth and small and large intestine as well as the respiratory tract. N. gonorrhoeae could also acquire the gene indirectly from other bacteria in the internal and external environments of animals and human beings, which can take up the gene from transgenic plant materials. Those other bacteria can serve as a reservoir for antibiotic resistance genes. The principle use of streptomycin is as a second-line drug for tuberculosis. But it is in the treatment of gonorrhoea that spectinomycin is most important. It is the drug of choice for treating strains of N. gonorrhoeae already resistant to penicillin and third generation cephalosporins, especially during pregnancy. About 60% of the cotton harvest consist of cotton seed. Cotton seed oil is extracted for human consumption, while the residue, cotton seed cake is used in animal feed. Although the Government advice was aimed at cotton seed, there are other hazards arising from the use of transgenic cotton itself, which may be why it was rejected by the EU. "Cotton is used in women's sanitary napkins and tampons, in babies' nappies, in bandages and other wound dressings." Dr. Elizabeth Bravo, a biologist from Accion Ecologica, Ecuador, reminds us, "The health impacts are enormous."Both transgenic cottons are being grown in millions of hectares in the United States and China, and exported to other countries. They are also planted to a smaller extent in Argentina. And Monsanto is trying to introduce them into Bolivia and other Latin American countries as well as India and Thailand. Illegal plantings of at least 500 hectares have already been discovered in Indonesia. "Why is this important scientific advice from UK Government scientists kept in the archives for more than a year before it was published?" asked Dr. Mae-Wan Ho, geneticist and biophysicist from the Institute of Science in Society (UK). "It could have, and should have, prevented millions of hectares of transgenic cottons from being planted." Dr. Bravo and Ho call for all transgenic cotton crops should be destroyed, and no more should be planted. Meanwhile, people should avoid using transgenic cotton products, especially in tampons, babies' nappies and wound dressings. And transgenic cotton seeds should certainly not be used in food or feed. Contacts: Dr. Elizabeth Bravo and Dr. Mae-Wan Ho at Amerian Hotel, Buenos Aires tel: 0351-155-633635 , e-mai . .
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