Curitiba 2006 - For strict labelling and against terminator seeds

clara , 13.03.2006 11:14

After 11 years of negotiations, the final round in the question of trade of GMOs might have started today. Delegates from 132 countries who have signed the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety are meeting in Curitiba for the Third Meeting of Parties (COP8/MOP3). One of the main issues will be the labelling of GMOs (Article 18).

[ Background information and reports from Curitiba: Official website (CBD and CPB) | GM contamination register | Ban Terminator campaign, glossary | etc group | Panos | Friends of the Earth International incl. briefings on the WTO case | Third World Network Biosafety Information Network | Greenpeace International Biosafety Protocol 2006 ]
[ Actions & endorsements: Urge President Lula to defend the Cartagena Protocol | Sign on to ban Terminator]
[ News from Curitiba: IMC Brazil | IMC Curitiba blog | Earth Negotiation Bulletin | Biotrade Watch nearly live video coverage from KanalB and EED in English, Portuguese and German | Student blog | Biosafety Protocol News (blog) ]

The Cartagena Protocol was signed in 2000 (after the WTO protests in Seattle gave the stalled negotiations an last upbeat) and came in force in September 2003 - ironically at the same day as the WTO meeting in Cancun. The protocol states that initially GMO shipments would have to be labelled as "may contain" GMOs and that after 2 years stricter labelling requirements (e.g. unique identifiers or transformation events) would come into force. However, the big GMO countries - the so-called Miami Group with the USA, Canada, Australia, Argentina - are trying to block any stricter labelling, even as some of these countries are neither a Party to the Biosafety Protocol and/or to the Biodiversity Convention. These countries prefer a vague labelling because it means that (1) everything can be labelled by default and therefore it will become more and more difficult to buy GMO-free products, while on the other hand (2) no information is given which GMO actually is in the shipment so that importing countries can't judge based on existing (scientific) information whether they consider a specific GMO as risk or not. A report from Genewatch and Greenpeace list 113 cases of GM contamination in 39 countries - vague labelling will inevitably lead to even more contamination.

Unfortunately Brazilian’s president Lula de Silva who started out as a GMO opponent has shifted his position and allowed the cultivation of GMOs, and while in the Brazilian government a pro-GMO agricultural minister and an anti-GMO environmental minister fight on the issue, Brazil (together with New Zealand) blocked the introduction of stricter labelling at the MOP2 meeting in 2005. This year Brazil chairs the MOP3 meeting and therefore gains an additional position of power.

The MOP3 meeting on the Biosafety Protocol (13-17 March) is followed by the COP8 meeting of the Convention on Biodiversity (CBD, 20-31 March) with another hot topic: Terminator seeds. Several countries such as Canada but also the UK with the apparent support of companies such as Monsanto are working hard to commercialise GM terminator seeds under the poor – and scientifically wrong – excuse that it could be used as a measure to protect biodiversity. The CBD has a moratorium against Terminator seeds (or GURTs as they are called officially), and also the FAO has a moratorium against them because they will seriously endanger the food sovereignty of (developing) countries and are bound to lead to harvest failures.

For all articles published around the COP8/MOP3 meeting in Curitiba click here or on COP8/MOP3 under 'events' in the left column.