Enviado por ETC Staff el
En el día de hoy, 302 organizaciones de 56 países del mundo enviaron una carta abierta a las autoridades mexicanas y organismos internacionales, exigiendo que se tomen acciones para parar la contaminación del maíz campesino con ADN modificado genéticamente y prevenir que se sigan contaminando los centros de origen y diversidad de los cultivos en el mundo.
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An open letter to Mexican government authorities and intergovernmental bodies was sent today, signed by 302 organizations from 56 countries, demanding actions to stop contamination of farmers' maize with DNA from genetically modified (GM) maize, and to prevent any further contamination in the world's centers of crop diversity and origin.
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Terminator – or genetic seed sterilization – has been on the agenda of the United Nations’ Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) for five years. If the Gene Giants and governments get their way, the CBD will be conducting studies on Terminator for years to come – long after suicide seeds are commercialized and show up in farmers’ fields.
At the ninth meeting of the CBD’s scientific advisory body (SBSTTA 9) held November 10-14 in Montreal, four governments – Canada, New Zealand, Argentina and Brazil – were allowed to highjack debate and stall action on Terminator by insisting that the CBD postpone consideration of an expert technical report on the impacts of genetic seed sterilization, arguing that the report lacks scientific rigor. While the report will be forwarded to next February’s Conference of the Parties (COP7) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, it will go with a recommendation that COP7 forego action and re-direct the report to the next meeting of the scientific body (SBSTTA10) – in late 2004 or 2005 – with the aim of providing advice to COP8 in 2006!
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Refiriéndose a la contaminación del maíz campesino en México, Michael Phillips, director ejecutivo de la Organización de la Industria Biotecnológica de Estados Unidos (BIO), recomendó el 10 de octubre pasado, en una entrevista a Mark Schapiro en The Nation, rendirse ante las evidencias y abrirse alegremente a la contaminación: "Si usted fuera el gobierno de México, espero que haya aprendido la lección: es muy difícil contener una nueva tecnología para que no pase sus fronteras, especialmente en un sistema biológico... ".
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ETC Group today (October 2003) released a 6-page Communiqué on the use of nanotechnology-based products in the environment - products that are coming to market in the absence of both government oversight and public discussion. A recent large-scale application of a product touted to control soil erosion using nanotechnology highlights regulatory inadequacies and lack of clarity in the nanotech industry.
Nanotechnology - whose best-known commercial successes have thus far been stain-resistant fabrics, stronger and lighter tennis rackets, and transparent sunscreens - has spawned new environmental products to prevent erosion or to clean up contaminated sites. While the companies claim these products will be beneficial to the ecosystem, in the absence of government regulatory oversight, the unknown short- and long-term implications raise concerns for health and for the environment.
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To the Mexican government and the international community:
On October 9, 2003, peasant farmers and indigenous communities, along with civil society organizations in Mexico, publicly released the initial results of their own testing that found GM contamination of native maize in at least nine Mexican states, even though the planting of transgenic maize is prohibited in Mexico. These results , which are part of ongoing studies, show far more serious and widespread contamination than previously assumed by earlier studies (e. g., the study by Berkeley scientists Chapela and Quist and one by the official Institute of Ecology in Mexico.
One alarming fact is that the communities found widespread contamination with Starlink maize (not approved for human consumption in the US and finally taken off the market) and contamination of single plants with up to three different transgenes, which may indicate that contamination has been occurring over several generations. All identified sequences are patented by one of the five multinationals that control the agricultural biotechnology industry.
Enviado por ETC Staff el
Al Gobierno Mexicano y a la comunidad internacional.
El 9 de octubre del 2003, campesinos y comunidades indígenas, junto con organizaciones de la sociedad civil en México, publicaron los resultados iniciales de sus pruebas sobre la contaminación de las variedades nativas de maíz en al menos nueve estados, aunque la siembra de maíz transgénico está prohibida en México. Los resultados, que son parte de más estudios en curso, mostraron que la contaminación es mucho más grave y está mucho más extendida que lo que se pensaba anteriormente (por ejemplo en el estudio de los científicos Chapela y Quist de Berkeley y del Instituto Nacional de Ecología en México).
Un hecho alarmante es que encontraron contaminación con maíz Starlink (prohibido para el consumo humano en Estados Unidos y finalmente retirado del mercado) y plantas contaminadas con hasta tres transgenes diferentes, lo que podría indicar que la contaminación ha estado ocurriendo desde hace varias generaciones. Todas las secuencias identificadas están patentadas por alguna de las cinco multinacionales que controlan la industria biotecnológica agrícola.
Enviado por ETC Staff el
On October 9, 2003, peasant farmers and indigenous communities along with civil society organizations in Mexico publicly released the results of their own testing of farmers' maize varieties and found GM contamination in at least nine states - far more serious and widespread than previously assumed.
Enviado por ETC Staff el
Mexico City, Mexico
* Contamination has been found in cornfields in the states of Chihuahua, Morelos, Durango, Mexico State, Puebla, Oaxaca, San Luis Potosí, Tlaxcala and Veracruz
* Analyses show contamination with the genetically modified (GM) variety Starlink, prohibited for human consumption in the United States
* Some plants found to show presence of two, three and four different GM types, all patented by transnational biotechnology corporations
Enviado por ETC Staff el
Contaminación también en Chihuahua, Morelos, Durango, Edomex, Puebla, Oaxaca, San Luis Potosí, Tlaxcala y Veracruz
Encuentran en todos contaminación con Starlink, variedad prohibida para consumo humano en Estados Unidos
Dos, tres y cuatro diferentes transgénicos en la misma planta, todos patentados por transnacionales biotecnológicas
Las comunidades indígenas y campesinas toman el proceso en sus manos, demandan parar importaciones de maíz, mantener la moratoria al maíz transgénico y detener la ley de bioseguridad en discusión en el Congreso.
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