Environmentalists say South Africa urgently needs a policy on the use of genetically modified crops to prevent damage to the environment. Fiona Macleod reports
South Africa is growing a variety of genetically modified (GM) crops, despite the fact that no one really knows what impact they will have on the environment.
Environmentalists are calling for a halt to the release of GM crops, which are created by altering gene structures. There is evidence they may have a serious effect on other plant species. Concerns have also been expressed about their impact on human and animal health.
Environmental impact assessments – tests which by law have to be conducted for the most mundane industrial processes, like building a road – are not conducted when GM crops are planted out in the open.
Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism Valli Moosa is being called upon to provide clarity on the application of regulations governing environmental impact assessments with regard to GM crops.
Environmentalists say the government should impose a moratorium on new commercial GM crops until there is legal certainty and a national policy in place to protect the environment.
South African farmers are already growing GM cotton seeds and two different types of GM maize. GM potatoes, strawberries, soya beans and sugar cane have been grown in the open during field trials.
“The problem is, we don’t know what the impacts of these crops are going to be,” says Lynne Broomhall, a researcher at the IUCN-South Africa (World Conservation Union).
“They may be positive – bird species have increased in some areas of the United States where GM crops are grown – or they may be negative.
“Pollen spreading from GM crops to other plants is a worry. So is the movement of toxins through the ecosystem, and the impact on non-target species by herbicides in GM crops.”
These concerns came to the fore in the US recently when it was shown that pollen spreading from GM corn could be killing off monarch butterflies, already under threat from other ecological pressures.
South African legal consultant Mariam Mayet this week completed a hard-hitting review of South African legislation governing GM crops and foodstuffs. Commissioned by Biowatch South Africa, the review highlights a number of glaring anomalies and loopholes in the system.
One is that it is the responsibility of the companies who are selling GM crops to monitor their impacts when they are planted in the open. Inspections may be done by government officials, but this is observed more in the breach than in reality.
Another anomaly is that the way the law stands at the moment, if environmental damage is caused by GM crops, farmers and consumers can be held responsible for the damage and for cleaning up the environment.
“It appears as if the government is not yet ready to protect the environment from the potential risks arising from genetic engineering,” Mayet reports.
The concern is that huge corporates may exploit these legal loopholes, concentrating on profits rather than health and environmental impacts.
Monsanto, a multinational company operating in South Africa, has been stopped from selling its seeds in other countries as a result of similar concerns.
Environmentalists in India late last year halted the sale of the same GM cotton crop that is being grown in South Africa. They accused Monsanto of conducting 40 field trials of GM cotton in five states without the correct permission or safety procedures.
After government hearings, the commercial growing of the GM cotton continued, but at least one state has banned any further field trials.
A judge in Brazil recently suspended commercial cultivation and marketing of GM soya beans until full environmental impact studies have been completed.
“The questions raised by genetic engineering will not be resolved by the laws of the market alone; rather they will be resolved by rigorous respect for the legislation which protects life, as established by our laws and Constitution,” the Brazilian judge ruled.
Wally Green, who works in the research and development department of Monsanto’s South African branch, says the company is making every effort to work within the legislative framework governing GM crops.
Potential environmental impacts are rigorously assessed in laboratories before the crops are released into the open, he adds.
But these are not enough of a safeguard for concerned environmentalists.
“The risk assessments are often pretty extensive, but they are based on international studies and on desk reviews.
“We need empirical, independent tests done out in the open, taking into account the South African ecology,” says Broomhall.