Lima - The world wave of transgenics that is sweeping several countries and many continents is now lapping the shores of Peru, gravitating around its extremely high biodiversity, the greater part of which resides in the Amazon. Thanks to a Supreme Decree issued on April 15 by the Ministry of Agriculture to regulate Law 27104, on the Prevention of Risks Derived from the Use of Technology, it will now be possible to request authorizations to import MLOs (Modified Living Organisms), with more ease than ever before.
As Ilko Rogovich, from the Peruvian Society for Environmental Rights, explains, the norm takes some precautions: it does not allow bringing in MLOs that have been refused in another country, nor does it allow Peru to become a kind of “experimental lab”. But, in the words of the specialist, it reduces the possibilities to limit the entry of transgenics, and “creates the administrative procedures for parties interested in conducting activities with transgenic organisms to obtain authorizations”.
This risk, which doesn’t seem to be a small one, created an unusual opposing consensus, even more so when one takes into account that currently a very intense and tense elections campaign is underway. In the forefront of those who do not wish MLOs are the Peruvian Association of Gastronomy, the Engineer’s College of Peru, the Peruvian Medical Association and even technicians from the Ministry of the Environment itself, who on this theme have become estranged from the Ministry of Agriculture, aside from the Peruvian Amazon Research Institute (IIAP).
“It is very foolhardy for our country, for our Amazon, to say that transgenic productive systems can coexist with organics”, claims Mario Pinedo, an employee of the abovementioned institution. His declarations are in tune with a notorious truth in Peru: although agriculture (an activity that would be affected by the MLOs) is not predominant in the Peruvian Amazon, there is a risk that the planting of organic products, which are present in the forest, could be seriously affected.
Products such as cocoa and coffee, fruits such as the camu-camu and the buriti, with great possibilities of expansion and that are currently showing notable results for the economy of those who plant them, would also be at risk. In 2009, for instance, the export of Peruvian organic products reached 220 million dollars, according to data from the Ecologic Agriculture Network that represents a great part of the 46 thousand ecologic producers in the country. They are all up in arms against transgenics.
And there’s even more for the forest. According to Santiago Pastor, a specialist from the Ministry of the Environment, one of the greatest risks for the Amazon would be the introduction of transgenic fish, a practice that is said to be happening already in the business of ornamental fish. “The diversity and richness of fish and in general of hydro biologic resources in the forest – says the researcher – is so great but poorly known that it would be akin to replace all our diversity of thousands of native potatoes for two or three commercial varieties.”
Another risk would arrive with soy, a crop which has already evolved a great deal in the transgenics dynamics, reducing forest coverage, as is already occurring in Brazil and Paraguay. As Isabel Penha, a Spanish lawyer that specializes in the transgenics theme and that has lived in Peru, states, “the Amazon and areas of high concentration of agro biodiversity, which are many in the country, would be pushed by this agricultural border, with a risk of invading habitats, which implies in the “disappearance of species and genetic contamination”.
Transgenic-free zones
“The genetic flow – she adds – is inevitable: seeds not only travel with pollen, but also with farmers that carry them wherever they go... If transgenics are allowed, it will be impossible to distinguish what is and what isn’t transgenic, because the informal seed market represents 90% in the country”. Actually, the powerful organic farming that is being developed in part in the Peruvian Amazon, or in the area known as “mountain” (or forest highlands), seems to be very vulnerable to the unrestricted entry of MLOs.
Concern over this issue has reached such great proportions in these zones that already several regional governments located in the forest have declared “transgenic-free zones” through regional laws. This occurred in the eastern regions of San Martín and Loreto, and also in the regions of Huánuco, Cusco, Cajamarca and Ayacucho, that, despite having most of their territories in the mountains, also have areas located in the forest, exactly where organic farming begins to generate very successful developments.
Also in Loreto, opposition has been such that even the local regional president, Yván Vásquez, took part of a symbolic act of “washing fruits” on May 15 in the 28 de Julho Square in Iquitos, this region’s capital. Fruits such as the abovementioned camu-camu and buriti were washed, as these are two of the region’s star products. Luis Campos Baca, IIAP’s president, who was present on the occasion, said that “instead of promoting the presence of transgenics, it became clear that the important thing to do is to promote scientific research.”
He also stated that it is imperative to strengthen the capacities to “highlight our product’s benefits”, that in the Amazon means to promote crops that are associated with biodiversity, to conserve ecosystems and the delicate balance of the food chain. If the country, as many consultant specialists insist, does not have sufficient biosafety mechanisms, it seems to be a very risky game to open the doors to MLOs in such a fast-paced manner.
Until now, this Supreme Decree has not become effective and in the Republic’s Congress there is a bill to establish a 15-year moratorium before allowing a greater entry of transgenics into the country (in reality, already some transgenic seeds are circulating in some zones, including food products that contain MLOs), but this has not yet been debated. Both candidates that run for presidency, Ollanta Humala and Keiko Fujimori, have given their opinion on the subject, with different standpoints and proposals.
While Humala, from Gana Peru, aligns himself with a clear opposition against the entry of more MLOs and as one who would eventually support the 15-year moratorium, Fujimori would bet on a 3-year moratorium. President Alan García, the next one in line to leave the post on July 28, declared that “it will be the next government’s task to debate this theme”, but the controversy is already set, the theme has not been held back and has even maintained its momentum over election tensions, because what is at stake is life and the magical biodiversity.
