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R info
Liability and
Compensation for Biosafety Prepared
by Eyvette Flynn, Institute for Agriculture and Trade
Policy
No. 21, January 30, 1998
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Information About Intellectual Property
Rights, Biotechnology and Biodiversity
Unintended negative consequences of genetically
engineered organisms are already being felt around the world.
Adequate provisions for liability and compensation are needed in
the Biosafety Protocol to create incentives for responsible
corporate behavior, and to create disincentives for premature
releases of GMOs that have been inadequately tested for the
effects on biodiversity and human health.
Beneficial insects are being
killed.
- Researchers at the Swiss federal research
station Zuerich-Reckenholz have found that beneficial
insects have been killed by genetically modified food
crop plants. Bt corn not only killed European cornborers,
but also killed the larvae of green lacewings, beneficial
insects that feed on the cornborers. Additionally, the Bt
toxin "jumped over" a food chain when an insect
pest, the African cottonworm, survived after being fed Bt
corn, but the beneficial green lacewings that fed on the
cottonworms died.
- In Thai field tests of Bt cotton, 30
percent of the bees around the test fields died. The bees
are necessary for the pollination of flowering plants and
the production of honey. Officials at the Institute of
Traditional Thai Medicine worry that the surviving bees
may have contaminated the country's honey supply with the
Bt bacteria. Traditional healers, agriculturists and
environmental lawyers are also concerned about the health
and safety effects of using Bt cotton in the medicines.
- In Scotland, researchers at the Scottish
Crop Research Institute found that the lifespan of
ladybugs, a beneficial insect, was reduced to half when
they ate aphids that fed on genetically altered potatoes.
The affected ladybugs also laid fewer eggs.
Transgenic seeds are performing
poorly; farmers' economic status is threatened.
Early field trials and on-farm plantings of
transgenic cotton and oil seed have shown more production-related
problems compared to conventional seed including low seed vigor,
reduced yields and poor plant health, in addition to high
economic costs.
- Farmers in seven U.S. southern states
report problems with Monsanto's Roundup Ready cotton seed
and many are seeking damage payments to cover their crop
losses.
- The Australian Research Development
corporation has announced that Monsanto's transgenic
"Ingard" cotton seed performed consistently
worse than conventional cotton in recent field trials.
- In Canada, inconsistent performance with
the transgenic "Innovator" herbicide tolerant
canola seed has led the Saskatchewan Canola Growers
Association to call for an official seed vigor test.
Unapproved releases are
occurring.
- In Canada, after some 600,000 to 750,000
acres were already planted with the seed, Monsanto was
forced to recall its canola seeds containing an
unapproved gene.
Human health concerns grow.
- German researchers have found that
glyphosate, the active chemical in Monsanto's Roundup,
which is applied to its Roundup Ready soybeans, can
increase the level of plant estrogens. Plant estrogens
are known to affect mammals including humans. Feeding
experiments done on cows with transgenic and ordinary
soybeans developed by Monsanto found a statistically
significant difference in the daily milk fat production.
Those cows fed RR-soybeans produced more fat per day than
those fed ordinary soy. Scientists are concerned that the
increased milk fat production by cows fed RR-soybeans may
be a direct consequence of higher estrogen levels in
these RR-soybeans.