From Mexico to Zambia -
The Gene Giants Continue
Their Genetic Pollution

From ETC Group www.etcgroup.org

Genotype
Friday, October 25, 2002

GM Fall-out from Mexico to Zambia:
The Great Containment

The Year of Playing Dangerously

Thirteen months ago, the agbiotech industry wakened to a nightmare.
Illegal and unwelcome, the presence of genetically-modified (GM) maize
was reported smack in the crop's center of genetic origin in Mexico.
There's never a good time for a political/ecological calamity, but
the beleaguered Gene Giants were already struggling to persuade
consumers, following the Taco Debacle (Starlink), that companies could
control their inventions and their inventory. The seed companies were
also hoping to arm-twist EU ministers into lifting the ban on GM
products in Europe. Suddenly, the headlines were full of the
contamination scandal. To make matters worse, the year ahead was
shaping up to be the Year of the Summits - a succession of diplomatic
poverty, hunger, and pollution "retros" including the Monterrey Summit
on development financing in March; the 10th anniversary of the
Biodiversity Convention in April; another World Food Summit (once more
with feeling) in June - all boiling up to the "mother of all summits"
(World Summit on Sustainable Development) in South Africa in
September. For the corporations (and the United States so aggressively
supporting them) the issue was: how to run the gauntlet of
intergovernmental marathons with GM contamination on their backs?
Thirteen months later, the issue for governments, international
agencies, and civil society is: how did the Gene Giants duck and dodge
their way through all these fora and end the year with Southern
African governments - half a world away from the "scene of the
crime" - being blamed and vilified for rejecting GM seeds?

Dodge 1 - Denial: One year after the Mexican Government announced that
maize in two states was contaminated with GM varieties, neither Mexico
nor the international genetic resources community have taken
constructive, coherent steps to arrest, fully assess, or ameliorate
the contamination. Mexico is the center of origin and diversity for
maize - one of the world's most vital food crops. As local farmers,
joined by more than 150 social movements and civil society
organizations worldwide, raged, the first reaction from pro-GM
scientists (public and private) was denial. It couldn't be true. The
reports were wrong. Mexico (at least, initially) and the two U.S.-
based researchers who provided corroborative evidence, held their
ground. When the whistle-blowers revealed that their study was being
peer-reviewed by Nature, industry's nightmare became a hologram.

Dodge 2 - Diversion: Quickly, biotech's spin doctors took control,
launching a vindictive e-mail and media campaign to discredit the
scientific competence and political intent of the scientists. (One
Mexican and one American - both located at the University of
California at Berkeley.) Rather than deny contamination (the
likelihood of which was scientifically undeniable), the industry
strategy was to divert attention by orchestrating a row over research
methodology (the vagaries of which are always academically
irresistible). This strategy became doubly-important when Nature's
article confirming contamination was published in November, 2001 A
good scientific squabble, industry reasoned, could obscure any truth
and immobilize the germplasm community for months.

CIMMYT limited: Caught like a deer in the headlights of the battle,
was the Mexican-headquartered International Maize and Wheat
Improvement Center (CIMMYT) - flagship of the Consultative Group on
International Agricultural Research and the developing world's leading
institute for maize breeding and conservation. Mandated to help
eradicate poverty and conserve maize diversity, CIMMYT soon took to
the woods. Despite repeated requests from civil society for CIMMYT to
weigh in on the reality of contamination and cut through the absurdity
of the methodology obfuscation, the Institute limited itself to pious
pronouncements about the need for scientific clarity and promises to
help in any way short of action. CIMMYT went on to produce a
succession of studies confirming that, whatever else may or may not be
happening in the world, its own gene bank was not contaminated. The
centre holds the world's largest unique maize germplasm collection.
Always dependent on U.S. funding and increasingly dependent for its
technologies on the biotech corporations, CIMMYT refused to publicly
acknowledge what every maize researcher in the world knew -- that GM
contamination of the Mexican maize crop was a reality. During the 10th
anniversary of the Biodiversity Convention in April, however, the
international institution did concede that the Mexican situation was
grave enough for CIMMYT to adopt a moratorium on maize seed collection
for conservation purposes. There was a risk that GM-contaminated seeds
would find their way into the CIMMYT gene bank if collections
continued. Still, CIMMYT refused to publicly-back the Mexican
government's ongoing moratorium on the introduction of GM crops. A
moratorium for conservation in its own genebank, but not a moratorium
for commercialization or contamination. Realizing that the
Precautionary Principal was being ignored and that food sovereignty
was being trampled, Mexican farmers' organizations and CSOs were
furious.

Dodge 3 - Delay: Industry's diversionary tactic was successful.
Ultimately, Nature withdrew its support for the peer-reviewed study
and the initial investigations both in Mexico and at Berkeley were
widely distrusted. This accomplished, however, there was the danger
that, in mid year, attention would again focus on the obvious reality
that -- regardless of methodology -- farmers' fields were filling up
with transgenes in at least two Mexican states. The logical solution
was to call for more studies. Mexico announced that two leading
national institutes would put the methodology debate to rest with two
independent studies. What's more, as an act of national pride -- and
to vindicate the Berkeley scientists -- Mexico would have the two
studies peer-reviewed in Nature. The months ticked by. Called to act,
FAO and CGIAR said they were awaiting Mexico's report. Meanwhile, the
World Food Summit came and went in Rome and the GM contamination
debate was not on the agenda. The World Summit on Sustainable
Development came and went in Johannesburg and the unsustainability of
agricultural biodiversity in the midst of GM contamination was not on
that agenda either. Farmers in Mexico continued to wait.

Only in late October, while answering questions from reporters, did a
senior Mexican official admit that the two institutions had had their
findings rejected by Nature. According to the press, one of Nature's
reviewers explained that the reality of contamination was too obvious
to bother publishing. A second reviewer insisted that the studies had
been flawed. Something for everyone! Thirteen months later and both
the earth and the debate had gone full circle.

Dodge 4 - Damnation: With scientists and the scientific media already
in chaos, drought and famine in sub-Saharan Africa afforded the
biotech industry another opportunity to turn contamination into a
virtue. Almost from the beginning, of course, some biotech enthusiasts
had insisted that "if" contamination were proven to have occurred in
Mexico, then the seed industry was not only providing a free gift of
valuable patented traits but it was also contributing to genetic
diversity. When several African countries expressed alarm that food
aid containing genetically modified traits could have health,
environmental, and trade risks for their people, American officials
jumped in with moral outrage claiming that "beggars can't be choosers"
and accusing African governments of willfully starving their citizens.
Even though other nations offered GM-free food, the United States and
the biotech industry pressured FAO, the World Food Program, and the
World Health Organization to urge the governments to accept GM aid.
Instead of focusing on the environmental and food security threat
posed by contamination, the Johannesburg Summit became entangled in a
debate over "despotic" African rulers and the overriding urgency of
getting food to the hungry. There was no space for the discussion of
alternative food supplies or of the human right to safe and culturally
appropriate food.

Containment: Thirteen months after the revelation of GM contamination
in Mexico, nothing has been done to change or even monitor the flow of
contaminants through commercial food shipments into Mexico. The
Mexican government has failed to make its own findings available to
its own people with the exception of INE/CONABIO's reports. We know
nothing more about the extent of GM contamination in other Mexican
states. No new regulations have been put in place. Neither Mexico,
CGIAR, nor FAO have undertaken any new studies on the impact of GM
contamination in a center of crop diversity. No studies have been
undertaken on the legal implications of the diffusion of patented
traits in farmers' fields. We have no additional information on
strategies to prevent contamination from entering gene banks. No wider
studies have taken place anywhere in the world regarding the
possibilities of contamination in other centers of diversity for other
crops.

Ironically, the biotech industry is pushing for an end to the GM
moratorium in Mexico, at the very time it is imposing new regulations
to contain gene flow north of the border. In a desperate attempt to
pre-empt public concerns over leaky genes, the biotech industry
announced this week that it would adopt a voluntary moratorium on the
planting of "Generation3" pharma crops - crops genetically modified to
produce drugs or chemicals or plastics - in major food-producing
regions of the United States and Canada. Industry's move to impose
voluntary restrictions on the location of pharma crops demonstrates
that GM pollution poses a serious risk. For the Gene Giants, the
primary concern is not biosafety, but the need to avert a public
relations disaster. One industry representative told the Washington
Post, "I think we can all agree that industry cannot afford StarLink
II." But industry concerns apparently do not extend to Africa and
Latin America.

Farmers and biodiversity continue to be threatened. The Gene Giants
have successfully "contained" the GM debate. If only the biotech
industry were as successful containing its genes!

For further information:

Hope Shand: hope@etcgroup.org 1 (919) 960-5223 EST
Silvia Ribeiro: silvia@etcgroup.org (52) 5555-63-26-64 CST

The full text, including a "highlight chart" is available in PDF form
on our website at: http://www.etcgroup.org/article.asp?newsid=366