Greenpeace Demands Feds Delist Potentially Dangerous New Seed

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GREENPEACE DEMANDS FEDS DELIST POTENTIALLY DANGEROUS NEW SEED

Genetically Engineered Soya Bean Certified By Agriculture
Canada    
                  
(Toronto)--March 17, 1997--The international environment group
Greenpeace today demanded that the federal government revoke
last week's certification of a "Roundup Ready" soya bean. This
is the first genetically engineered (GE) soya bean listed as a
variety in Canada, and it forces farmers and the entire soya
bean industry to choose between natural varieties and seeds
that have had genes added to them from a virus, a bacterium
and a petunia.

"Monsanto is gambling that their new soya bean will not
destroy, mutate or harm native plants and animals, that it
will not harm human health," said Tzeporah Berman, Greenpeace
Biodiversity campaigner. "This is a new life form that has not
been subjected to long-term tests. Allowing it to be grown and
consumed without a thorough understanding of how it will
affect the environment and human health is careless at best." 

The soya bean, certified as S14M7 is owned by Novartis
Incorporated (formed by the recent merger of Ciba-Geigy and
Sandoz) which has a licensing agreement with Monsanto to adapt
the Roundup Ready soya bean for use and sale in Canada. The
Roundup Ready soya bean is resistant to Monsanto's Roundup
herbicide. This allows more of their own chemical to be
sprayed without harming the soya bean plant itself.  

Greenpeace has done many direct actions in Europe and the
United States aimed at disrupting the transport of Roundup
Ready soya beans. The U.S. started growing the soya beans last
year and mixes them in with the GE-free crop, preventing
buyers from choosing between the two.  

In Europe a MORI poll found that 53-78% of people polled (by
country) did not want GE food products. Major food producers
such as Kraft Jacobs Suchard (fourth largest in Europe) and
Unilever and Nestle in Austria and Germany will not use GE
soya in their products. Many retailers both small and large
are declaring themselves GE free. The Eurocommerce
Association, which
represents 30% of European food retailers, is demanding the
segregation of crops and the labelling of GE soya products. In
the Netherlands (Europe's largest soya bean importer) the
parliament has just passed a resolution calling for the Dutch
government and industry to implement policies that ensure the
segregation of GE soya from GE-free soya. In Switzerland, the
use of GE soya in human food is illegal. Legislators are
starting to prohibit the import of GE products and are
creating mandatory labelling policies in many other countries.


"European food manufacturers are looking for soya supplies
that are GE-free." said Berman. "Canadian farmers have an
opportunity to corner an emerging green market. There is no
reason, other than corporate profit, to rush blindly into a
massive genetic experiment." 


For more information, contact: 
         
     Tzeporah Berman at 415-512-9025 
     Peter Morris at Greenpeace International 31 (20) 523 6222 
     Mary MacNutt at Greenpeace Toronto 416-597-8408