December 11, 2006

Syngenta in trouble over illegal GM soy planting in Brazil
 

Roberto Requião, governor of the state of Parana, Brazil signed a decree to expropriate the experimental test site owned by the Swiss giant Syngenta in Santa Tereza do Oeste.

The move came in the wake of illegal GM soy planting at the site. The decree is unprecedented in Brazil and Latin America (indeed, the world), as never before has any state or the federal government moved to expropriate land from an agribusiness multinational corporation. 

The decree to expropriate the site followed an eight-month, non-violent occupation of the site by members of the rural social movements the Via Campesina and the Movement of the Landless Rural Workers (MST), which occupied the site on March 14 after the Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Natural Resources (IBAMA), the federal environmental agency, confirmed that Syngenta had illegally planted GM soy.

The action also reflects growing resentment for agribusiness corporations among Latin American politicians and the increasing power of civil society in the region. While GM soy planting is legal in Brazil, Syngenta illegally planted some 12 hectares of the particular variety within the protective boundary zone of the Iguaçu Falls National Park, in which it is illegal under federal law to plant GM crops.

The occupation stopped all Syngenta's activities at the site, and cost the corporation more than US$50 million, according to Syngenta reports. The occupation also pressured IBAMA to fine the corporation US$465,000, something the corporation has yet to pay. Syngenta however, has denied any criminal activity.

It was a historic moment in the global struggle against transgenics, and was enough to prove that social movements could stop transnationals from moving further, pointed out Maria Rita Reis, an attorney for Terra de Direitos, a human rights organisation in Curitiba representing the legal proceedings against Syngenta.

Incidentally, Syngenta has been held responsible for the largest case of genetic contamination in the US, when it encouraged farmers in four US states to plant Bt-11 GM corn, that had only been approved for animal consumption. Syngenta then watched silently as this animal feed was mingled with corn for human consumption and sold to unsuspecting consumers as tortillas and corn chips.