May 21, 2007

Approved GMO corn in Brazil to still undergo inspections

Though German multinational Bayer CropScience got the nod to sell its LibertyLink transgenic corn in Brazil, the company says the product will wait for 11 different ministries to have the final approval before it could be allowed to be planted by the farmers.

Rachel Mortari, a press agent for the country's biosafety commission, CTNBio said the technical part of LibertyLink is okay but it will still undergo 11 different ministries for the political viability of GMO corn in Brazil.

CTNBio has approved the use of LibertyLink last May 16 by a vote of 17-4. Officials from the environmental ministry, agrarian reform, and fishing and wildlife departments voted against.

Gabriela Vuolo, a Greenpeace coordinator in Brasilia said the group has strongly opposed the CTNBio decision, stating the agency doesn't work on environmental studies. Greenpeace in Brazil has been lobbying against transgenic corn since last year.

According to Edilson Paiva of Brazil crop science institute, Embrapa, corn is an exotic plant to Brazil and has only survived because of science.

He said Brazil's original native corn which originated from the 1950s "doesn't exist anymore," adding scientifically, there is no pure native corn in Brazil.