[Ngo-sanrm] Fwd: Vietnam to plant genetically modified corn as questions linger

Sustainable Agriculture and Natural Resources Management Working Group ngo-sanrm at ngocentre.org.vn
Fri Sep 12 01:06:51 BST 2014


This article is very timely for discussions at this morning's SANRM meeting.


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Vietnam to plant genetically modified corn as questions linger
<http://www.thanhniennews.com/politics/vietnam-to-plant-genetically-modified-corn-as-questions-linger-31018.html>


By *An Dien*, Thanh Nien News

*HO CHI MINH CITY* - Thursday, September 11, 2014

Vietnam has green-lighted the cultivation of its first genetically modified
(GM) corn crop after leaving a number of disturbing questions unanswered.
"I want to ask the agriculture minister what benefits genetically modified
organisms will bring to Vietnamese farmers," said To Van Truong, a senior
scientist at the Ministry of Technology and Science who insists that local
corn can out-produce the imported varietals by over 30 percent.

Critics like Truong say Vietnam rolled out the red carpet for foreign
biotech giants looking to peddle genetically modified (GM) corn while
sidelining dissenting voices like his.

In August, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development approved the
imports of four corn varieties engineered for food and animal feed
processing--namely, MON 89034 and NK603 , produced by DeKalb Vietnam (a
subsidiary of US mega-corporation Monsanto) and Bt 11 and MIR 162 from the
Swiss firm Syngenta.

Near the end of the month, the Ministry of the Environment and Natural
Resources issued a bio-safety certificate for Monsanto's MON 89034 corn
variety, enabling farmers to start commercially cultivating the crop, which
is banned in Europe and China.

The environment ministry is considering issuing similar certificates for
the other three varieties, but it remains unclear when that decision will
be made. Given the current political landscape, it seems unlikely it will
do anything else.

Draft amendments to the Investment Law originally contained language that
would ban investment and trade in GM products in Vietnam. But in the latest
version of the draft sent to the National Assembly -- Vietnam's legislature
-- for debate on Tuesday, lawmakers slackened that provision and prohibited
only "transgenic animals".
Critics considered the amendment their last hope of keeping GM corn out of
the country.



*Sidelined*
In 2006, the government drafted an ambitious plan to develop GM crops as
part of a "major program for the development and application of
biotechnology in agriculture and rural development." The plan aimed to
cultivate Vietnam's first GM crops by 2015 and have 30-50 percent of the
country's farmland covered with genetically modified organisms (GMOs) by
2020.

 Le Huy Ham, director of the Institute of Agricultural Genetics, was quoted
recently by Nong Nghiep Vietnam (Vietnam Agriculture) newspaper as saying: "The
agriculture ministry is increasingly determined to realize its [GM
crop-growing] plan soon."
 Vietnam's small opposition to the push say they've all but given up.

Truong, a vocal critic of GMOs, confirmed that since the agriculture
ministry licensed the four GM corn varieties, there has been a "silence"
from those who object to the controversial crops.

"Anti-GMO activists now see no point in continuing to debate GMOs; the dice
has already been cast," Truong told *Thanh Nien News*. "They don't want to
fight tooth and nail against powerful interest groups."

A September 4 piece by The Gioi Tiep Thi, a weekly newspaper, noted that at
an international conference on GMOs in Ho Chi Minh City last month,
familiar anti-GMO scientists were "totally absent".

"There wasn't a single research paper presented that disputed [the
cultivation of] GMOs in Vietnam," the piece wrote.
It also cited a well-regarded expert as saying that the portions of his
paper that discussed the possible ramifications of cultivating GMOs Vietnam
were cut by conference organizers.



*Who benefits?*
Many scientists have questioned the high costs of GM seeds and pesticides
as well as their uncertain yields and the potential to undermine local food
security make them a poor choice for a developing country like Vietnam.

Truong, the Vietnamese scientist, raised a major question: On what grounds
do the Vietnamese authorities buy that the GM corn is of better quality
than Vietnamese varieties?

"For instance, Vietnam has been able to cultivate corn varieties that can
deliver annual yields of up to 12 tons while GM varieties only produce
eight tons. It is noteworthy that the Vietnamese yield came from real
cultivation while the GM yield was just a result of field trials," Truong
said.

 "The ministry of agriculture has been beating the drum about the benefits
of GM corn varieties, but who can confirm that they can outshine Vietnamese
varieties? No research conducted in Vietnam has demonstrated anything of
the sort."



*A threat to sovereignty*
Anti-GMO activists say the surging prices of Monsanto's patented GM seeds
have bankrupted a number of American farmers who are virtually unable to
find non-GMO seed because of a monopoly control on the US market.

Select scientists and public health professionals also warn of the harmful
health and environmental impact of the dramatic increase in herbicide use
that has accompanied the introduction of genetically engineered (GE) seeds.
As in other countries, the introduction of GMOs not only diminishes the
ability of farmers to practice their own methods of seed selection, but
also increases monopolization, which hurts both farmers and consumers.

In India, a wave of cotton subsistence farmers who borrowed heavily to buy
Monsanto's Bt cotton seeds killed themselves after they proved far less
drought-resistant than native cotton. While a link between the seeds and
the suicides has been hotly debated, internal Monsanto reports have
acknowledged one exists.

In lieu of any convincing public argument for the corn, many have been left
to speculate.

"It sounds like some officials in the Vietnamese government were lied to,
and unfortunately believed the lies. This is not uncommon," said Jeffrey
Smith, author of the best-selling book Seeds of Deception and founder and
executive director of the California-based NGO Institute for Responsible
Technology.

Smith said when he met with members of the Vietnamese government and
experts during a visit to Hanoi several years ago, "it was clear that
certain government agencies had been already convinced...that GMOs were
going to be the source of greater economic expansion and scientific
achievement." 

 He said that in other countries where GMOs have taken hold, Monsanto and
the biotech industry take charge. They set prices and policies and usurp
decision-making in "insidious" ways.

"This is often done through specific politicians and ministries that are
unfortunately not well informed about the downsides of the technology," he
said.

"Vietnam is an agricultural power. Not only is this at risk with GMO crops,
so too is Vietnamese sovereignty." 
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