Brazil state pays farmers to rip out GM soybeans

   BRAZIL: December 8, 1999

   SAO PAULO - Brazil's southernmost state will launch what may be the
   world's first-ever crop substitution programme aimed at weeding out
   genetically modified (GM) crops, a top state official said yesterday. 

   Treating GM soybeans like drug plants, the state will offer farmers a
   total of 10 million reais (US$5.37 million) in special low-interest
   loans if they rip out the lab-enhanced soy - illegal throughout Brazil
   - and replant normal varieties.

   "What we are telling them it is better to lose seedlings than lose
   their entire crop," said Rio Grande do Sul state's agriculture
   secretary, Jose Hermeto Hoffmann.

   Brazil, the world's second-largest soybean producer, is the last major
   competitor to top grower United States who has not followed the North
   American country down the transgenic trail.

   But the ban has not been enough to discourage many farmers, especially
   in Rio Grande do Sul, where growers itching to save money on costly
   weed killers have fuelled a thriving black market for the suped-up
   seeds.

   The Brazilian Association of Seed Producers (Abrasem) estimates that
   the contraband crop could account for about eight percent of Brazil's
   upcoming 31.5 million tonne crop and a third of production in Rio
   Grande do Sul.

   Hoffmann, however, estimated that GM planting was far lower - largely
   due to an aggressive radio and television campaign warning farmers the
   government will torch illegal crops.

   The state has even sponsored a toll-free phone number called "Dial
   Transgenics" to encourage law-abiding farmers to phone in tip-offs on
   unusual planting activity.

   "Sadly, our initial field inspections showed that transgenic soybeans
   were grown on 20 farms in five municipalities," Hoffmann said. "While
   that is disappointing, it represents a small fraction of the 700 tests
   that we have conducted."

   Hoffmann's promise to burn down GM crops has met with fierce
   resistance in many municipalities, where illegal planting was so
   widespread that they passed now-stricken laws authorising GM planting.

   A band of 80 angry farmers, fearing their crops could be burned next,
   surrounded state inspectors last week as they prepared leave their
   offices to test for illegal soybeans.

   "They surrounded the inspectors for 12 hours. Obviously you can see
   there has been resistance," Hoffmann said.

   He added that farmers have until Dec 31, the end of the state's
   planting season, to apply for the loans - which carry interest rates
   54 percent lower than the market rate.

   The crop-substitution scheme met cheers from environmental group
   Greenpeace, which is leading a campaign to keep Brazil transgenic
   free. But it said it would prefer if the loans were doled out by U.S.
   biotechnology giant Monsanto Co. , which engineered the brand name
   "Roundup Ready" soybeans.

   "These crops are made by companies and these companies should be held
   responsible. This is product stewardship," said Benni Haerlin, head of
   the group's worldwide anti-GM campaign.

   Story by Phil Stewart

   REUTERS NEWS SERVICE