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Farsul threatens to plant GM soy even if illegal (16/9/2004)

The defence of illegal planting below is very reminiscent of the way in which legalisation was fored in India where politicians also jumped on the bandwagon -  see "Gujarat's Chief Minister "BT" crazy"
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4324

For the biotech industry this is the ultimate proof of their crops popularity with farmers but Donald White, a University of Illinois plant pathologist, has suggested that US farmers selecting GM corn may not necessarily be acting wisely: "what happens is there is a herd mentality. Everyone has to have a biotech program."

White's view chimes in with a University of Iowa study on why farmers were growing GM soya which concluded, "It is interesting to note....that increasing crop yields was cited by over half the farmers as the reason for planting GMO soybeans, yet yields were actually lower".

For how farmers' "leaders" allied to the bioteh industry and pro-corporate lobbyists exploited illegal GM cotton growing to help force legalisation in India, see:
http://www.lobbywatch.org/profile1.asp?PrId=70
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Farsul threatens to plant GM soy even if illegal
September 15, 2004
GrinGoes.com
Leonêncio Nossa

BRASÍLIA - Carlos Sperotto, the president of the Rio Grande do Sul Federation of Agriculture (Farsul) was cited as saying on Tuesday as he left the Presidential Palace in Brasília after a meeting with Policy Coordination Minister Aldo Rebelo that farmers in the state will plant GM soy even if it is illegal.

Sperotto was further cited as saying that the government does not intend to grant an executive order allowing the provisional planting of GM soy for the 2005/05 crop, which begins to be sown at the end of the month, adding, "The Minister  knows we'll plant. Brazil will plant, not only Rio Grande do Sul." Sperotto said he did not fear the consequences of illegal planting.

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