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Brazil Passes Law Allowing Crops With Modified Genes (& human embryonic stem cells research)
NY Times ^ | March 4, 2005 | TODD BENSON

Posted on 03/03/2005 10:48:52 PM PST by neverdem

SÃO PAULO, Brazil, March 3 - In a significant victory for large biotechnology companies like Monsanto, Brazil's lower house of Congress has overwhelmingly approved legislation paving the way for the legalization of genetically modified crops.

After months of delays and heated debate, legislators passed a biotechnology law late Wednesday night by a vote of 352 to 60. The bill had pitted farmers and scientists against environmental and religious groups. Besides lifting a longstanding ban on the sale and planting of gene-altered seeds, the legislation also clears the way for research involving human embryonic stem cells that have been frozen for at least three years.

The bill, which was approved by the Senate in December, is expected to be signed into law by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in the next two weeks. Mr. da Silva, whose own Workers' Party is packed with environmentalists who fiercely oppose genetically engineered crops, issued temporary decrees twice in the last two years allowing the planting of modified soybeans, even though it was technically illegal to do so.

Until now, Brazil was one of the last of the world's major agricultural producers not to have granted blanket permanent approval to the planting of genetically modified crops. Even so, farmers have been flouting the ban for years, sowing modified soybean seeds that have been smuggled across the border from neighboring Argentina.

Agricultural specialists estimate that about 30 percent of Brazil's soy crop is already grown with genetically engineered seeds.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Extended News; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: agriculture; biotech; biotechnology; brazil; environment; farm; geneticengineering; trade

1 posted on 03/03/2005 10:48:52 PM PST by neverdem
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To: farmfriend

ping


2 posted on 03/03/2005 10:49:36 PM PST by neverdem (May you be in heaven a half hour before the devil knows that you're dead.)
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To: cpforlife.org; Coleus; Peach; Mr. Silverback; airborne; hocndoc

ping


3 posted on 03/03/2005 10:51:01 PM PST by neverdem (May you be in heaven a half hour before the devil knows that you're dead.)
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To: neverdem
Until now, Brazil was one of the last of the world's major agricultural producers not to have granted blanket permanent approval to the planting of genetically modified crops.

Has the US granted blanket permanent approval to the planting of genetically modified crops?

4 posted on 03/03/2005 11:55:14 PM PST by my_pointy_head_is_sharp
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To: neverdem

Thanks for the ping.

I've never seen that priority before: Nation allows crop manipulation (oh, and it also clears way for human embryonic stem cell research, but that's not as big a story).

Good grief. The world is upside down. (No Southern Hemisphere pun intended.)


5 posted on 03/04/2005 12:06:39 AM PST by hocndoc (Choice is the # 1 killer in the US)
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To: my_pointy_head_is_sharp; farmfriend
Until now, Brazil was one of the last of the world's major agricultural producers not to have granted blanket permanent approval to the planting of genetically modified crops.

Has the US granted blanket permanent approval to the planting of genetically modified crops?

I had similar reservations about that statement. IIRC, genetically modified organisms(GMOs) still generate a load of flak, especially in Europe. AFAIK, new GMOs are quarantined initially in the USA.

6 posted on 03/04/2005 12:09:48 AM PST by neverdem (May you be in heaven a half hour before the devil knows that you're dead.)
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To: neverdem

Have you read "Enough" by Bill McKibben? He has a sort of new age, running in the mountains, outlook similar to this.

I disagree with him on the final outcome (as well as whether its okay to kill people in order to get there).

He is concerned that the children who are eventually born using genetic modification won't know who they really are. While they may not know which species they are until they try to have kids of their own, I don't think that they will be emotionally paralyzed or stunted by their parents' desire to design them with certain traits. Most of us survived all the designing our parents could manage, quite well. It will just be another form (evolution if you will) of teenaged angst and alienation, and most - if not too alien - will eventually grow up to worry about their kids' worries.

I do agree that human beings, like the microenvironments and crops that he worries about, are complicated, interdependent and intradependent on all sorts of variables that science and society aren't even aware of, and certainly can't measure. Just when the world seems to be concerned about preserving gene variation in rice and tomatoes, science decides to tinker with the human genome?


7 posted on 03/04/2005 12:20:27 AM PST by hocndoc (Choice is the # 1 killer in the US)
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To: neverdem; 2ndMostConservativeBrdMember; afraidfortherepublic; Alas; al_c; american colleen; ...

Some "Catholic" country.


8 posted on 03/04/2005 1:01:49 PM PST by Coleus (I support ethical, effective and safe stem cell research and use: adult, umbilical cord, bone marrow)
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To: 2nd amendment mama; A2J; Agitate; Alouette; Annie03; aposiopetic; attagirl; axel f; Balto_Boy; ...

ProLife Ping!

If anyone wants on or off my ProLife Ping List, please notify me here or by freepmail.

9 posted on 03/04/2005 1:10:51 PM PST by Mr. Silverback ('Cow Tipping', a game the whole family can play!)
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To: neverdem

First, freezing embryonic aged humans for storage is wrong on the face of it. To then turn around and dehumanize these beings further by making them source for body parts (and that's what stem cells are, especially to the early age of a human being) is naziesque. Good ol' secular Brazil. I wonder if the Catholic Church in Brazil is standing against this or keeping their collective mouths shut, or worse, making whimpering noises to appear defiant of this wrong?


10 posted on 03/04/2005 2:01:05 PM PST by MHGinTN (If you can read this, you've had life support from someone. Promote life support for others.)
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To: neverdem; abbi_normal_2; Ace2U; adam_az; Alamo-Girl; Alas; alfons; alphadog; AMDG&BVMH; amom; ...
Rights, farms, environment ping.
Let me know if you wish to be added or removed from this list.
I don't get offended if you want to be removed.
11 posted on 03/04/2005 6:18:08 PM PST by farmfriend ( Why oh why didn't I take the blue pill?!?)
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To: farmfriend

BTTT!!!!!!


12 posted on 03/05/2005 3:10:34 AM PST by E.G.C.
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