Sell, Sell, Sell!

For critics of genetically modified crops, friends have always been far and few in Latin America. The past several months have been especially cruel to them in Brazil where GM soya seeds are now on the fast track to legalization. Since the judiciary implemented a 1999 ban on biotech seed sales, the federal government has been busy working with biotech firms (mainly American & namely Monsanto) to reverse the moratorium. A crushing blow came in mid-October when President Luis Ignacio Lula da Silva prompted a temporary one-year trial allowing the sale of GM seeds until January 2006. The second came the other day when the lower house in Parliament unflinchingly (352-60) approved the sale of such seeds ... for good.

None of this should come as a shock though, since farmers have been freely planting GM soya for over a decade thanks mainly to weak enforcement and neighbors with no such bans like Argentina. With legalization, biotech firms will now be able to collect their royalties from the the third of all Brazilian soya crops that are already GM and those of future seed sales which are sure to skyrocket. Regardless of your take, it’s probably just a matter of time until Brazil surpasses the US in terms of soya crop. They have the potential through cheap land, cheap labor & abundant water, and now they have the cost effectiveness - thanks to our research and Chinese demand. Story of the 21st century.