Almost two decades after the first introduction of GMOs in Latin America, it has become a factory for multinationals that produce grain for animals of other multinationals, polluting the environment and biodiversity.
But it remains a space of biodiversity, where life flourishes, and peasant communities
Seventeen years after the release of genetically modified crops into the environment, 30 Latin American organizations from 12 countries in the region, convened by the Network for a Transgenic-Free Latin America, analyzed the situation in the continent in the city of Bogotá, Colombia, and made public their concern about the serious impacts that these crops have on the region.
The statement is as follows:
We strongly reject the massive commercial release of genetically modified corn that the industry wants to carry out on more than three million hectares in Mexico, an unprecedented event in the history of agriculture, as it would be the first time that such a devastation would occur in one of the centers of origin and for a crop that feeds humanity as a whole.
Throughout this period, transgenic crops have sown devastation and death in Latin America, where these crops have reached high levels of expansion, occupying second place in area cultivated with transgenic crops in the world.
Companies that produce seeds, agrotoxins and market genetically modified foods, together with local elites and in complicity with the governments in power, have turned Latin America into a factory for the world's genetically modified crops.
There are no genetically modified crops without pesticides.
Although promoters of GM crops claimed that they would reduce the use of pesticides, the opposite is true. There has been an exponential increase in the use of agrotoxins in countries that have adopted this technology, and their application is especially related to herbicide-resistant crops, which has meant subjecting the population to a sanitary condition close to genocide. In the Southern Cone, glyphosate-resistant soybeans cover an area of 475,700 km2; this entire area is sprayed with a cocktail of agrotoxins that includes glyphosate, affecting nearly 10 million people who live in the area of influence of the spraying associated with GM crops.
Brazil has been the world leader in pesticide consumption since 2010, and is the main producer of glyphosate-resistant soybeans in the region.
This toxic avalanche has caused an exponential increase in pesticide-related diseases, such as genetic malformations, increased leukemia, lymphomas, autoimmune diseases, and irreparable damage to ecosystems.
These problems would be exacerbated by the adoption of new transgenic crops resistant to stronger herbicides such as 2,4D and Dicamba, ammonium glufosinate, which have already been approved or are in the process of approval in our countries, so we reject any attempt to release them into the environment.
Added to this is the genetic contamination of agrobiodiversity and the destruction of natural ecosystems, which are the basis of livelihood for local communities.
The problems generated by GMOs have led to human rights violations.
The impacts described are so serious that it has ceased to be a problem that can be solved through techniques such as risk assessment and management, and has become a cause of violation of the human rights of entire populations. Therefore, its discussion must go beyond international agreements such as the Cartagena Protocol, which is limited to looking at the impacts of genetic modification on biodiversity, to be dealt with by United Nations Human Rights bodies.
Genetically modified crops do not feed us.
The vast areas devoted to the planting of transgenic crops in Latin America, once dedicated to satisfying the human right to food, are now territories where transgenic soy and corn are produced for fodder, destined for intensive and confined animal breeding, which in most cases are raised on other continents, depriving the native population of access to healthy and culturally appropriate food. In countries where transgenic soy and corn are grown, animals are raised in very poor sanitary conditions and with great violence, which affects the quality of the meat, which leads to enormous impacts on dietary patterns and on human and animal health. Transgenics are a business of transnationals for transnationals, not for consumers or farmers. Transgenics are food for feeders, not for eaters; and they have even displaced traditional animal breeding in countries where this was customary, worsening the health, the environment and the economies of small breeders.
New seed laws are a boost to the expansion of GMOs and a threat to native seeds
New seed laws are being promoted in the region, which propose penalizing the circulation of native seeds that are the basis of peasant and family agriculture. This is a clear violation of farmers' rights, clearly recognized in the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. These laws also seek to reinforce market control by transnational seed companies, and the adoption of transgenic seeds in our fields, endangering the region's plant genetic resources.
The organizations gathered in Bogotá would like to draw attention to the following specific problems in Latin America:
Paraguay.- We repudiate the parliamentary coup d'état that took place on June 22, 2012, against President Fernando Lugo, elected on April 20, 2008 in democratic elections for the period 2008-2013. We consider that this coup was closely related to the expansion of agribusiness and the illegal release of new genetically modified crops, for example: 2 events of transgenic cotton, one event of transgenic soybean and 4 events of transgenic corn.
We are also concerned about the strong process of foreign ownership of land and the expulsion of peasant and indigenous communities and the violation of environmental laws in force in that country, to make way for the expansion of transgenic crops, such as RR soybeans, which since the 1990s have been causing serious socio-environmental conflicts, violating fundamental rights.
We therefore call on the United Nations High Commissioner to launch an investigation into the human rights violations in Paraguay related to the expansion of agribusiness and the persecution and criminalization of leaders defending nature. We urge the international community to keep a close eye on developments in this country.
Mexico.- We support and stand in solidarity with the process of the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal, Mexico chapter, and we will be especially attentive to the sessions of the thematic hearing “Violence against corn, food sovereignty and the rights of the Peoples”, where a large number of cases and testimonies of peoples, scientists and activists are being presented on transgenic contamination and other violations carried out by transnational corporations, with official support, against corn and the peoples of corn.
We support the demand of Mexican citizens to avoid the commercial and experimental planting of genetically modified organisms, especially transgenic corn, Mexico being one of the Center Countries of Origin of Corn.
We support the arguments and elements of scientific, socioeconomic, cultural weight and irreversible damage caused by GMOs, which are presented online by the Union of Scientists Committed to Society (UCCS) and other scientific and social organizations, and we join the petition to not authorize the commercial planting of transgenic corn in Mexico, its Center of Origin, and to declare an essential moratorium on this crop. We also support the withdrawal of authorizations for commercial planting of transgenic soybeans in Yucatan, given the negative impact on thousands of beekeepers who are affected by the limitation of honey sales to the European Community due to transgenic contamination.
Argentina.- We reject the advance of the agricultural frontier in the north of the country, which has led to an aggressive process of displacement and criminalization of indigenous populations that must stop.
We also reject the approval and release of new transgenic events that incorporate resistance genes to new stacked herbicides, as well as new Bt toxins.
We support the request of environmental organizations, self-organized groups of neighbors affected by agrochemicals, and Argentine social movements to urgently implement fumigation-free protection zones of at least 1,000 meters around towns, rural schools, and wetlands; to prohibit aerial spraying; and to implement epidemiological and biological studies to determine the impact on human and environmental health, respectively, of the massive use of agrochemicals; and to initiate a comprehensive restoration process for the victims based on the results found.
We also repudiate the agreement made by the Argentine President with Monsanto to establish new infrastructure in the country, such as the seed conditioning plant planned in the Malvinas Argentinas – Córdoba locality, and others.
Honduras.- We are aware of the campaign “Let’s sow the country with more corn” to plant 100 thousand hectares of transgenic corn in 2020, promoted by Monsanto Agrícola de Honduras, Bayer, Fenorza and the Central Government, which aims to strengthen the positioning of transgenic seeds in Honduran territory, and extend a technological package that includes agrochemicals, which promotes agriculture without farmers, regardless of the serious impacts that this type of agriculture causes to health and the environment and that will increase food insecurity for the Honduran people. Therefore, we ask the Honduran government to stop such a disastrous initiative and to put a definitive stop to GMOs in Honduras.
We also want to question the role played by the Pan-American Agricultural School, better known as El Zamorano, which serves as a spearhead for the promotion of GMOs in the tropical regions of Latin America. Its headquarters train technicians and develop technologies that are at the service of agribusiness.
Costa Rica.- We support the social organizations in Costa Rica who have opted for a model of agricultural development free of GMOs and intellectual property and based on agroecology and ancestral and native seeds; and all 57 cantons that have declared themselves free of GMOs. For this reason, we reject the attempt by transnational companies to plant transgenic corn in that country, and we support the call for a 30-year moratorium on the release of transgenic crops and other crops manipulated through genetic engineering techniques in the national territory, requested by social organizations.
Panama.- We are concerned that Panama is becoming a testing ground for new genetically modified organisms, which is being carried out behind the backs of society. Panama is home to the plant for producing genetically modified mosquitoes of the company Oxitec, which operates in the facilities of the Georgas Institute.
The transgenic salmon developed by Aqua Bounty Technology is also planned to be bred in this country, and it would be the first transgenic animal to be included in our diet. The GM salmon would be produced on Prince Edward Island, Canada, and the eggs would be sent to the highlands of Panama, where the animal would also be processed. This transgenic fish has genes that express a growth hormone that is only activated in warm climates, which is why Panama was chosen for its breeding.
Colombia.- Ten years after Monsanto's GM cotton was commercially released, cotton farmers have failed with the use of this technology and have suffered million-dollar losses. Although most farmers no longer want to know about this technology, Monsanto has withdrawn non-GM cotton seeds from the market. Since 2007, ten GM corn crops have been commercially released, which is very critical, since Colombia is a center of corn diversity, and GM corn has an enormous impact on the diversity of native corn, local production systems, and food sovereignty in the country. We support the initiatives of Colombian civil society that seek to ban approved crops and declare the country GM-free.
Ecuador.- We salute the Ecuadorian people for having incorporated into their Constitution an express prohibition of genetically modified crops and seeds, for the recognition of the rights of nature and of good living as the path that must relate society to its environment. We are concerned, however, that in the near future there will be an attempt to change the country's Constitution, so that the country will no longer be free of genetically modified crops and seeds. Studies carried out in that country show the rich agrobiodiversity that exists, which is not genetically contaminated, and for this reason Ecuador maintains its status as a country free of genetically modified crops. Therefore, we urge the National Assembly to keep Ecuador free of GMOs.
Peru.- We welcome the moratorium on GMOs in Peru, and we hope that this moratorium will become a definitive ban, which will allow Peru's rich agrobiodiversity to be enhanced. We emphasize that the moratorium is the result of the work carried out by a broad alliance that includes farmers, consumers and the gastronomy sector, who are aware of the need to protect their genetic heritage and biodiversity.
The situation in Bolivia is still worrying. Although the Political Constitution of the State establishes the prohibition of transgenic crops, and the Framework Law of Mother Earth establishes the gradual elimination of transgenic soybeans, as well as the categorical prohibition of transgenic crops of which the country is the center of origin and center of diversity, such as corn, potatoes, peppers, peanuts, etc., agribusiness corporations boast of sustained growth (which would reach 991 TP3T of cultivated soybeans) since the first glyphosate-resistant event was approved in 2005. Control of the soybean production chain is in the hands of foreign companies -66 % mainly Mennonite, Brazilian and Japanese- that are expanding the agricultural frontier at a rate of clearing and deforestation of 60 thousand hectares per year.
Uruguay.- We call for an end to land grabbing, foreign ownership and speculation in Uruguay, a process that is accompanied by the expansion of monocultures of trees and genetically modified soybeans, and for a study to be carried out to reverse this phenomenon. We also want to reject research carried out with genetically modified animals such as sheep in Uruguay.
Brazil.- Brazilians are looking back on 10 years of legalization of GM crops in Brazil, with 36 approved GM events, millions of hectares covered with GM soybeans, corn and cotton, with several other crops on the approval list and holding the dubious honor of being the world's largest consumer of pesticides.
We are concerned about the approval of genetically modified beans, developed by Embrapa using a technique that modifies RNA to make them resistant to a virus, because this type of genetic modification has never been released en masse into the environment, much less for direct human consumption. We support the request of Brazilian organizations demanding access to all scientific information related to the genetic modification of this bean, including its potential impacts on health and the environment.
We believe that hunger has structural causes, and that on the other hand, Embrapa could direct its research efforts to promoting agroecology and family farming for food sovereignty, and that it be respectful of the environment and take into account the social sector.
We support the request made by Brazilian organizations demanding that a post-release monitoring and surveillance process for transgenic crops be implemented, the results of which should be made available to organized civil society.
We strongly oppose the use of “Terminator” technologies, which render seeds sterile, in order to make farmers slaves of corporations. We denounce attempts to break the international moratorium on Terminator, initiated by proposals to legalize this technology in the Brazilian Congress.
Chili.- In the international division of labor, Chile is the maquiladora of transgenic seeds for Monsanto and the agrochemical transnationals, a business that, in addition to serving only their interests, puts organic and conventional seeds at risk, as has already been demonstrated in Germany, with the detection of conventional corn contaminated by transgenics from Chile, as well as honey.
In the international division of labor, Chile is the maquiladora of transgenic seeds for Monsanto and the agrochemical transnationals, a business that, in addition to serving only their interests, puts organic and conventional seeds at risk, as has already been demonstrated in Germany, with the detection of conventional corn contaminated by transgenics from Chile. We support the ongoing peasant, environmental and social struggles that seek to prevent the advancement of the Plant Breeders' Law project, to stop the plundering of the genetic heritage of Chile and its peasant and indigenous peoples and to prevent the expansion of transgenic crops to the domestic market.
Venezuela.- We welcome the efforts being made in the National Assembly of Venezuela to guarantee food sovereignty and prevent the use of GMOs in the country.
Despite all these problems, our continent still has a rich farming culture that feeds 70% of the population. Its territories preserve the richest agrobiodiversity on the planet, which is in a continuous process of renewal. The largest areas covered with tropical forests, as well as other important ecosystems, extend here.
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