|
Nearly half the 58 million tons of soybeans that Brazil expects in its next harvest are transgenic. This phenomenon, which is no longer just a subject of debate, but a significant aspect of the new Brazilian agricultural landscape, was the focus of a special radio program.
The broadcast called "Soybeans - A Big Business," was presented on Friday, January 20, by Brazil's state-owned Radio Nacional and is available in its entirety to listeners on the Agência Brasil's website. According to the director of Research and Production of the Brazilian Seed and Transplant Association (ABRASEM), Ivo Carraro, there will be even more growth of transgenic soybean cultivation in the coming years, because "the technology really makes the farmer's life a lot easier." He pointed out that in some regions, such as Rio Grande do Sul, the upcoming soybean harvest will be almost 100% transgenic. Bahia and Mato Grosso, he says, are not far behind. For João Flávio Veloso, deputy head of research and development at the Embrapa (Brazilian Agricultural Research Company) Soybean Unit, the expansion of transgenic soybean cultivation in Brazil is "only a question of markets" from now on. That is why the federal government's agricultural research enterprise is working to obtain approval for various species discovered by members of its research staff. Approval of these species, the sale of which would give Embrapa a source of royalty revenues, is up to the new National Technical Commission on Biosecurity (CTNBio), which is in the process of setting up its council of representatives. In the opinion of the head of the Foreign Trade Department of the National Agricultural Federation (CNA), Antonio Donizeti Beraldo, the CTNBio needs to be more agile in authorizing the use of new transgenic soybean species. According to Beraldo, this would end the dominance of the multinational company, Monsanto, which controls the rights to Roundup Ready, the world's most widely used brand. Donizeti considers it essential "to democratize farmers' access to other varieties." Another problem created by the massive introduction of transgenic soybeans is the huge quantity of smuggled seeds that continue to be used illegally. For the acting minister of Environment, Cláudio Langone, this has entailed "very serious consequences" for the country. ABRASEM director Ivo Carraro believes that the level of contraband transgenic soybean seeds in Brazil "is nearly making it impossible to continue doing research." Environmental activists, who have always been opposed to the use of transgenic soybeans, are trying to adjust to the new reality, even while they persist in their belief that, in time, farmers will go back to planting conventional soybeans. This point of view is reflected in the thinking of the coordinator of Greenpeace's genetic engineering campaign, Ventura Barbeiro. At the moment he is focusing his attention on issues related to consumer protection and enforcement of the Label Law, which applies to every product containing more than one percent of substances of transgenic origin. Agência Brasil
 |
Subscribe to this comment's feed
The small, coastal town of Condé is located just a twenty minute's drive from João Pessoa, the capital of Paraíba. The Northeast of Brazil has historically been a place of encounter and mixing between peoples. For millenia groups of indigenous people fished, farmed, migrated and sometimes fought along this large, fertile area. 
The Brazilian diplo-MÁ-cia (bad diplomacy) carries on its accelerated course towards the non-acknowledgment of human rights, although sometimes it takes pleasure in saying that it does precisely the opposite. The visit of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is another example of a diplomatic omission that verges on hypocrisy. 
On July 4, 2006, representatives of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay met in Caracas to sign the protocol for the entrance of Venezuela into the Southern Common Market (Mercosur). After two and a half years, the protocol was approved by the legislative bodies of Argentina and Uruguay, and as of now it may be only days away from being ratified by the continent's economic megalith, Brazil. 
Some sectors of the fight against AIDS have suggested that Thabo Mbeki, the former president of South Africa, committed genocide through his absence from the fight against the illness in his country throughout his two terms. 
One hundred and eleven years after Brazil abolished slavery, the number of workers deprived of their freedom is still huge. They raise cattle, produce charcoal, sugar cane or timber. Some of them, most undocumented Bolivians, work in basements of small apparel factories in São Paulo and other metropolis. 
On November 7, 2009 a few friends and I had an opportunity to take a look inside a Brazilian jail outside the city of Rio de Janeiro. We were able to take some amateur footage of our experience on video (see link below). It's no surprise, of course, that the typical Brazilian jail lacks some of the functionality of those in North America or Europe, but our experience that day was quite shocking. 
Depletion of the Amazon Rainforest is not a new concern facing environmentalists, biologists, ecologists, and a growing number of the Amazonian indigenous peoples. For decades they have feared for the fate of the world's most biologically diverse and species-rich hothouse. 
Geisy Arruda made history this week in Brazil, but for all the wrong reasons. What began as a poorly planned fashion statement has become a worldwide tale. Geisy decided to wear a pink mini-dress to her private college in São Paulo state, and after that, all hell broke loose. 
The push of vigilante groups in Rio de Janeiro's favelas (shantytowns) in the last three years is the most important and alarming information of the just-released study by the Rio de Janeiro University's Violence Research Center (Nupev-Uerj). 
A dispute over drug trafficking territory in Rio de Janeiro has intensified lately, leaving in its wake unprecedented acts of violence, such as the downing of a police helicopter in the northern zone of the city on October 17. Three policemen died and another two were injured. This event has drawn the attention of the international media, who are raising the issue of public security for the 2016 Olympics to be held in Rio.