ETC: CGIAR and GM Contamination - Taking Care of Business

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> " ETC group " <etc

> ETC: CGIAR and GM Contamination - Taking

> Care of Business

> Fri, 27 Aug 2004 10:32:17 -0600

>

>

> ETC Group

> News Release

> Friday, August 27, 2004

> www.etcgroup.org

>

>

> Taking Care of Business

> The CGIAR and GM Contamination

>

>

> In a remarkable departure from its role as a public

> science network, the Consultative Group on

> International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) is

> huddling with the biotech industry (including

> Monsanto and DuPont) to craft a policy response to

> the unwelcome and ongoing spread of DNA from

> genetically modified plants to farmers' varieties.

> The meeting begins in Rome on Monday and comes three

> years after scientists first confirmed GM

> contamination in Mexico's maize crop - and two and a

> half years after farmers' organizations and their

> civil society allies called upon CGIAR and the UN

> Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to take

> action. Farmers' organizations are not invited to

> the meeting.

>

> [Note: The world's most important collections of

> seeds, the vast majority of which were collected

> from farming communities in the South, are

> maintained in a network of 16 gene banks overseen by

> the CGIAR. In 1994, the FAO and CGIAR signed

> agreements placing most of the seed collections

> under the auspices of the United Nations. At the

> meeting next Monday, CGIAR will examine the

> implications of GM contamination for gene bank

> collections it holds in trust for the international

> community. Officially, the meeting is known as " The

> development of CGIAR policies to address the

> possibility of adventitious presence of transgenes

> in CGIAR ex situ collections. " ]

>

> Policy workshop: Beginning next Monday in Rome, 30

> invited participants from the biotech industry and

> national and international agricultural research

> institutes will sit down for 2.5 days to hammer out

> a strategic policy response to the ballooning

> problem of worldwide GM contamination.

>

> The meeting will hear formally from government

> institutes such as EMBRAPA in Brazil, CGEN in

> Netherlands and the USDA. The agenda also calls for

> presentations from three industry representatives

> including Monsanto and DuPont - the world's two

> largest seed corporations. Missing from the speakers

> list are the representatives of farmers'

> organizations, South government policymakers,

> development agencies, and civil society

> organizations (CSOs) familiar with the issues. FAO

> is invited but not offered a place on the agenda.

> The workshop organizers defend their limited

> invitation list stressing the " technical " nature of

> the discussion although the invitation states that,

> " The emphasis of the workshop should be on the

> policy and economic-related implications of

> different approaches to the issue, with a lesser

> focus on potential scientific, technical means. " The

> timetable following the battery of industry

> statements concentrates on " points of agreement " and

> " controversial issues " as CGIAR and its national

> scientific partners look for policy recommendations.

> (CGIAR's workshop agenda and description, as

> received Aug. 20, are posted as PDF documents on ETC

> Group's website.)

>

> Paternalist turned partner-predator? " The CGIAR has

> mandated itself to use science for 'poverty

> alleviation' but now seems to be more concerned with

> helping the agbiotech industry get through the

> crisis created by their own sloppy science, " says

> Pat Mooney of the Canadian-based ETC Group. " The

> CGIAR network has always had a paternalistic

> approach to farmers and their organizations, " Mooney

> adds, " but this is the first time we have known them

> - as an international consortium of public sector

> scientists - to side so thoroughly with industry. It

> is farmers' seeds that are being contaminated.

> Industry's GM crops are causing the contamination.

> Whose business is the CGIAR taking care of? "

>

> The workshop was proposed by the CGIAR's Genetic

> Resources Policy Committee in February. The

> invitation states that a maximum of 30 invitees

> include " ...representatives from (most affected)

> IARCs, NARS and private companies, and experts. "

> Belatedly recognizing that news of the meeting would

> leak out, organizers opined earlier in the summer

> that they might convene an electronic conference to

> appease stakeholders not invited to the meeting. As

> the summer wore on, however, and as the reaction to

> FAO's May report on agricultural biotechnology

> evoked unprecedented outrage among farmers, CGIAR

> apparently decided to keep the meeting as low-key as

> possible. Organizations of small farmers such as La

> Via Campesina are being shut out. One farmer who

> sits on a CGIAR committee in a private capacity may

> attend the final half-day of the workshop along with

> the rest of the committee - but has not (perhaps

> until now?) been asked to make a presentation.

>

> Stakeholders and Steak-eaters: " Both from a

> political and from a scientific point of view, the

> organizers have been breathtakingly stupid, " says

> Silvia Ribeiro of ETC's Mexico office, " a meeting

> between the CGIAR and industry was bound to become

> known and widely-resented. It is also profoundly

> insulting that the CGIAR - that claims to work with

> and for farmers - does not realize that farmers'

> organizations have a critical perspective on the GM

> contamination issue that cannot be ignored. The

> CGIAR is seeking policy advice from the culprits and

> not the victims. The decision not to invite farmers'

> organizations and CSOs was political, " Ribeiro

> concludes.

>

> " This workshop is a case study in bad science, "

> argues Hope Shand of ETC in the USA. " With GM

> contamination, " Shand adds, " the stakeholders are

> the farmers whose very lives and livelihoods depend

> on their seed. The companies do not have their lives

> at stake and they're the ones who caused the

> contamination. Monsanto is a steak-eater not a

> stakeholder! "

>

> Malicious presence: " The language of the agenda

> pretty well says it all, " Pat Mooney notes. " Farmers

> and civil society organizations typically refer to

> the unwanted intrusion of transgenes into farmers'

> fields as 'contamination.' Industry refuses to use

> the term and CGIAR has gone along with them. They

> prefer 'adventitious presence,' which means

> unintended and unavoidable presence and, ironically,

> even sounds a bit like 'advantageous.' By adopting

> language manufactured by industry spin doctors,

> CGIAR has made it clear whose side it is on. "

>

> Contamination controversy: The CG system can't claim

> that it didn't know farmers and civil society were

> both well-informed and alarmed about GM

> contamination - especially in Third World centres of

> genetic diversity.

>

> * In February 2002, 144 civil society organizations

> from 40 countries signed an open letter to the

> Director-General of FAO and the Chair of the CGIAR

> asking them to take up the issue of GM

> contamination; to advise on how future contamination

> could be monitored and prevented; to explore the

> feasibility of decontamination; to consider the

> impact of contamination on farmers' varieties and

> their livelihoods; to review the protocols for gene

> bank collections, grow-outs and exchange; and to

> examine the complications brought about by

> intellectual property. CGIAR replied that no

> specific action was required. FAO acknowledged in

> March 2002 that the situation was serious and

> requested that CIMMYT investigate..

>

http://www.foodfirst.org/progs/global/ge/jointstatement2002.html

>

>

> * A second letter, signed by 302 CSOs from 56

> countries was sent to the Government of Mexico, FAO

> and CGIAR in November 2003.

>

http://www.peoplesfoodsovereignty.org/statements/new/03.htm

>

>

> * In June this year, more than 650 civil society

> organizations responded to FAO's contentious report

> on agricultural biotechnology with yet another

> letter of protest - which specifically mentions GM

> contamination in Third World centres of crop

> diversity. http://www.grain.org/nfg/?id=180

>

> Reforms needed: Last week, CGIAR scrambled to

> invite a representative of the Ottawa, Canada-based

> ETC Group to attend the Rome meeting. With barely a

> week's notice, ETC shot back a sharp " no " and

> roundly criticized the organizers for failing to

> involve farmers' organizations. " We're not a

> farmers' movement, " Hope Shand says, " and we

> certainly do not speak for them. "

>

> ETC Group believes the workshop should be cancelled

> and then convened under other auspices with the full

> participation of farmers' organizations on a newly

> formed planning committee. However, since the

> gathering begins Monday, cancellation is unlikely.

> " The workshop should be downgraded to a meeting to

> discuss a future workshop that will engage the real

> stakeholders from farmers to South governments, " Pat

> Mooney proposes. " Next week's meeting should be a

> meeting of FAO, CGIAR, and national public sector

> institutes only. The industry people should be

> dis-invited immediately. It is simply unacceptable

> for CGIAR to convene a GM policy meeting with the

> private sector and without civil society or

> governments. "

>

> For further information:

> Pat Mooney, Canada, Phone: 1-613-241-2267 email:

> etc

> Silvia Ribeiro, Mexico, Phone: +52 55 55 63 2664

> email: silvia

> Hope Shand, USA, Phone: 1-919-960-5223 email:

> hope

>

> The Action Group on Erosion, Technology and

> Concentration, formerly RAFI, is an international

> civil society organization headquartered in Canada.

> The ETC group is dedicated to the advancement of

> cultural and ecological diversity and human rights.

> www.etcgroup.org. The ETC group is also a member of

> the Community Biodiversity Development and

> Conservation Programme (CBDC). The CBDC is a

> collaborative experimental initiative involving

> civil society organizations and public research

> institutions in 14 countries. The CBDC is dedicated

> to the exploration of community-directed programmes

> to strengthen the conservation and enhancement of

> agricultural biodiversity. The CBDC website is

> www.cbdcprogram.org

>

>

> To view CGIAR's workshop agenda and description,go

> to:

> http://www.etcgroup.org

>