The battle over genetically engineered (GE) crops continues to be fiercely fought and shows no sign of easing up. Clashes have taken place on the farm, in the supermarket aisles and at global institutions like the World Trade Organization and the United Nations.
Last week, another shot was fired across the bow of the biotech companies. The 147 countries who are parties to the Biodiversity Convention's Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety agreed to set rules "for liability and redress for potential damage caused by the movement of genetically modified organisms (GMOs)" to native plants or animals. In essence, this new international regime will set rules for holding biotech companies accountable for damages associated with the technology. IATP's Kristin Dawkins proposed ideas for how such a liability regime could work in this 2004 paper.
The agreement is expected to turn into an accord to be approved at a 2010 meeting in Japan. Over the next two years, participants will decide how responsibility for damages will be determined and how damage amounts will be assigned. The agribusiness publication Feedstuffs reports that while the legal details are unclear, the burden of proof will likely be with the injured party and predicts the rules will mean little changes for industrialized countries. However, the new rules might improve legal standing for developing countries in cases where damages occur.
Apparently several major biotech companies were concerned with the agreement. Friends of the Earth International reported on a last minute effort by six biotech companies to push an alternative proposal that would settle damages related to genetic contamination through private compensation with individual countries, rather than a global set of liability rules.
Where is the U.S. in all this? The agreement would not be legally binding in the U.S. because it has not ratified the 1992 Biodiversity Convention and thus is not a party to the Cartegna Protocol. It's hard to imagine the U.S. government supporting such a system. Here in the U.S., we've struggled just to protect farmers who have had their crops unknowingly contaminated with GE material from getting sued by Monsanto.
In September 2006, the Bush Administration and biotech companies won a victory at the WTO by arguing that the European Union's regulatory system for GE crops violated trade rules. Now, the UN-based treaty system answers back.
The battle over GE crops has gone on for over 15 years - and still going strong.
