The Modified East - genetically modified crops - Monsanto Co - Advanta Seeds Inc

Ecologist, The, Sept, 2000 by Iza Kruszewska

BULGARIA: THE CORPORATE EUROPEAN PLAYGROUND FOR GM FOOD AND AGRICULTURE

In 1999, Bulgarian farmers harvested the first crop of GM herbicide-tolerant and pest-resistant maize. Most of this maize was probably used for animal feed and thus entered the human food chain. Farmers bought the maize seeds from local seed distributors, having seen them advertised in the catalogues and seed offers of the TNCs that produce them - Monsanto and Pioneer. In 1999, Monsanto's GM maize was allegedly grown on 12,000 hectares and in 2000, this increased to 20,000 hectares.

While this is the reality, officials from the Council for Safe Use of GM Higher Plants, giving permits for releases of GMOs, claim that these are just large-scale field trials. The Council was established on the basis of a 1996 regulation, which itself was based on a law from 1958 on Seeds and Seed Material. As in the USA - Bulgaria's mentor on biotech matters - parliament was bypassed. This Council meanwhile, is accountable to no one - not even the Government - and all its activities are considered an administrative secret, including the registers of GMO releases. Members of the Council include officials and scientists; the most prominent being Professor Atanassov, who is both executive secretary of the Council and director of the Institute of Genetic Engineering, which undertakes projects for Monsanto. The fox is guarding the hen house. 'Is there no conflict of interest? Is Prof. Atanassov serving the public interest of biosafety and public health, or is he serving Monsanto?' asks Dr. Dian Deyanov from the Bulgarian environmental group EcoSouthWest.

This NGO, along with three other groups, recently filed papers challenging the legal status of the 1996 regulation and the Council. This followed the launch of a joint ANPED-EcoSouthWest report, Bulgaria: The Corporate European Playground for Genetically Engineered Food and Agriculture, that finally prompted a public debate on this issue. The stranglehold of Monsanto on Bulgarian scientists and officials was clearly evident when they infiltrated the NGO press conference in Sofia, held to release the report in May 2000. In an attempt to discredit the report, Prof Atanassov brought with him to the press conference a farmer and a seed distributor from Sevilevo (300 km away) that NGOs had interviewed for the report, to refute their earlier statements.

In the long term, the commercialisation of GM crops could have severe impacts on biodiversity and human health. More immediately, the cultivation of GM maize in Bulgaria, the lack of segregation of GM maize from non-GM and thus traceability, threaten to destroy Bulgaria's export market for maize derivatives and fodder. Already, foreign food-processing companies and grain handlers in Bulgaria, such as the Belgian starch company Amylum and UK's Glencore, wanting to buy maize and maize derivatives for the EU market, are starting to request GM-free certificates of purity. These cannot be guaranteed.

CORPORATE GAMES OF RUSSIAN ROULETTE WITH EASTERN EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE