1.Monsanto contradicts ISAAA's figures of GM plantings in SA
2.South Africa: Concern Raised Over SA's GM Crop Stats
GM WATCH NOTE: The concern referred to in the second item was prior to the discovery of the massive discrepancy between Monsanto's figures and ISAAA's, as revealed in item 1.
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1.Monsanto contradicts ISAAA's figures of GM plantings in SA
27 January 2007
Monsanto
South Africa
Attention: Mr Wally Green
copies to:
ISAAA
GM Watch
Dr Julian Japhth, Chair of Executive Council, GMO Act; National Department of Agriculture Dr Fundisile Mketeni, Deputy Director General, Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism AgriSouth Africa Business Day, South Africa Cape Times Mail and Guardian
Dear Sir
We refer to the press release by AgriSA and ISAAA, regarding the GM commercial plantings in South Africa for the period 2006. In such press releases, the claim is made that the GM commercial plantings in South Africa, have increased by 180%, from 500 000 ha to 1.4 million ha.
Can you kindly explain to us how the GM maize plantings have jumped from just 609 000 ha in September 2006, (when Monsanto South Africa made your PR to promote your "Seeds of Hope Campaign") to what the ISAAA has been claiming just thee months later.
For your ease of reference, below is the press coverage.
In the circumstances, we look forward to receiving a clarification on this issue and if necessary, a public retraction from ISAAA and AgriSouth Africa.
Regards
Mariam Mayet
African Centre for Biosafety
Gene crops bloom in South Africa, says Monsanto Reuters, 27 Sep 2006 http://today.reuters.com/news/articleinvesting.aspx?view=CN&storyID=2006-09-27T121455Z_01_L27132720_RTRIDST_0_FOOD-SAFRICA-GMO.XML&rpc=66&type=qcna
JOHANNESBURG, Sept 27 (Reuters) - The area under genetically modified crops in South Africa rose over the past season to 609,000 hectares from 515,000 the previous year, U.S. biotech giant Monsanto said on Wednesday. That included soybeans, cotton and maize crops, though maize made up the largest chunk at 500,000 ha, Monsanto said in a statement. GMO seeds had been sold out ahead of the new 2006/07 season, the agricultural products provider said. "Thousands of small-scale farmers in South Africa are buying GM maize and cotton seed ... Emergent farmers on average claim a yield increase of 42.6 percent with GM maize compared to conventional maize," it said. While many African countries have banned GMOs, South Africa has embraced them as a means of ensuring food security.
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2.South Africa: Concern Raised Over SA's GM Crop Stats
John Yeld
Cape town Cape Argus (Cape Town), January 26 2007 http://allafrica.com/stories/200701260464.html
Doubt and concern were expressed about claims this week that South Africa was second only to India in the planting of genetically modified (GM) crops.
Farm union Agri SA reported on Tuesday that the country's GM crop area had soared by 180% to 1.4 million hectares in the 2006/07 season.
Union president Lourie Bosman told a news briefing that one million hectares of this was under maize, the country's biggest staple crop. This equated to 44% of this year's maize planting, up from last year's 29,3%.
The remainder was soybean and cotton crops.
None of these crops is grown in the Western Cape, where two applications to plant or use GM organisms in the wine industry are likely to be decided on by the government's GM agency at its meeting next month.
The first relates to an application by Professor JJ Hennie van Vuuren, director of the British Columbia Wine Research Centre at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. He has applied to use GM yeast in wine-making in 20 wine-producing regions of the western and southern Cape.
The second, completely unrelated, application is by Stellenbosch University's Wine Biotechnology Institute for field trials for GM grapevines to produce both fruit and wine for research purposes.
Both decisions will be made by of the Department of Agriculture's Executive Council for Genetically Modified Organisms, which meets again next month.
The yeast application is particularly controversial and is being opposed by, among others, the South African Wine Industry Council and the GM-watchdog environmental group Biowatch South Africa, whose formal objection to the application is supported by 12 local winemakers.
Bosman said South Africa's GM production growth in 2006/07 had been the second highest behind India and this made it the eighth largest GM producer in the world.
"These achievements reflect the trust and confidence of thousands of South African commercial and emerging farmers and consumers in crop biotechnology as the leaders in Africa," he was quoted as saying by Reuters.
The statistics on GM crops were compiled by the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA).
But Biowatch said in response that the crop picture was not as rosy as Agri-SA suggested and that ISAAA claims were flawed.
It said a report released by Greenpeace International this month had shown that statistics from ISAAA had been exaggerated in the past.
"In India, which ISAAA says is the leading GM crop grower in Asia, the supreme court has placed a temporary ban on all field trials of GM crops.
"ISAAA claims Brazil has 11.5 million hectares under GM crop cultivation but Brazil continues to resist GM industry attempts to get approval for GM maize," said the watchdog.
Even in South Africa, it said, the regulatory authority for GM applications had rejected an application last year for experiments with GM sorghum because it feared contamination of local sorghum varieties.
"Research in South Africa and world-wide is showing that GM crops have none of the benefits which the GM industry persistently promises," said Biowatch.
The African Christian Democratic Party has also hit out at the increase in GM production.
"Encouraged by recent enabling legislation, GM crops have been allowed to run riot in South Africa despite many reservations, including concerns that the safety of GM foods has not been established," Cheryllyn Dudley, ACDP spokeswoman on agriculture and land issues said at parliament yesterday.
"This kind of risk-taking places the South African economy in jeopardy. "The ACDP is of the opinion that genetic engineering has serious implications for sustainable agriculture and food security and offers counterfeit solutions for Africa."
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