"This announcement from the biggest rice exporters occurred after
massive backlash against the GE industry following the recent scandals
where illegal and unapproved GE rice varieties from the US and China
contaminated the global rice supply," said Jeremy Tager of Greenpeace
International.
In the wake of the announcement, Greenpeace today revealed yet another
major contamination, this time in the Philippines, where rice is the
staple food: Bayer's LL601 - - has contaminated rice products coming
from the US, which are currently on sale in Manila. (1) The brand found
to be contaminated by GE rice is "Uncle Sam Texas Long Grain Rice" which
is distributed in the Philippines by Purefeeds Inc and sold in major
supermarkets like Robinson's, Shopwise and SM.
"The public must be immediately warned, and the government must recall
all US rice and rice products from supermarket shelves," said Danny
Ocampo of Greenpeace Southeast Asia. "The Philippine Government must
safeguard the staple food of Filipinos. The latest GE contamination
scandal shows that once GE organisms are released into the environment,
the consequences for consumers, farmers and traders are enormous,"
Ocampo added.
The global food industry is now facing massive costs associated with GE
contamination, including testing costs, product recalls, brand damage,
import bans and cancelled imports and contracts. At least five
multi-million dollar class action lawsuits have been filed by about 300
US rice farmers against Bayer, as they struggle to protect their
livelihoods from GE contamination. In addition, the world's largest rice
processing company, Ebro Puleva, which controls 30% of the EU rice
market, has stopped all imports of rice from the US and is expected to
bring legal action against Bayer as well.
The company responsible for the global contamination is Bayer, which
ended field trials of the LL601 variety in the US five years ago. So far
in 2006, this unapproved and illegal variety has been found in at least
24 countries. Last week contamination was announced in several countries
in Africa. (2) How small scale field trials in the US resulted in global
contamination of rice supplies is still not known. Many countries
including the EU, Russia and Japan have responded with import
restrictions, and recent export figures show serious declines in US
long grain rice sales.
Earlier, Chinese rice exports to the EU were also found to be
contaminated by illegal GE Bt63 rice.
Greenpeace campaigns for GE-free crop and food production that is
grounded in the principles of sustainability, protection of biodiversity
and providing all people to have access to safe and nutritious food.
Genetic engineering is an unnecessary and unwanted technology that
contaminates the environment, threatens biodiversity and poses
unacceptable risks to health.
