> Date: Fri, 14 Jul 2006 

> 
> Forwarded Message from Elizabeth Bravo (From Accion
Ecologica in Ecuador)
> 
> 
> Dear friends
> 
> We are very sad to share with you a very bad news. 
> The Congress approved
> last night the law that promote biotech in Peru. The
> law passed without
> discussion and was approved by a very small number
> of members of the
> parliament.
> 
> This law, which has being called "Monsanto Law" in
> Perú, has as its only
> objective promote modern biotechnology in the
> country.  It wll put under
> great risk the extremely rich biodiversity of Peru,
> the food sovereignty of
> the country and the indigenous peoples and small
> farmers which depend on the
> extraordinary biodiversity of potatoes, corn, and
> other Andean and Amazonic
> crops for their survival.  Many of these crops has
> their centre of origin in
> Peru, and were domesticated there several thousand
> of years ago.  The local
> communities has being conserving and creating more
> biodiversity since there,
> and now this biodiversity is under risk of genetic
> contamination, if
> transgenics crops are introduce into Perú.
> 
> It is regretful that the lobby of big transnational
> corporations like
> Monsanto has being more important for the
> parliamentarians that the
> opposition of the different organizations around
> Peru and Latin America,
> which expressed their opposition and concern about
> this law.
> 
>   The law provides special finantial incentives for
> the national and
> international companies which want to invest in
> biotechnology in Perú.
> 
> Our concern is that through this law, Peru will be
> transformed in a biotech
> field experimentation country, were new
> technologies, crops and traits that
> have not being test anywhere else in the World will
> be tested in Perú.
> 
> And additional sources of concern is the fact that
> the traditional
> agriculture in Perú has already very affected due to
> the policies
> implemented in this country in the last two decades,
> although there is still
> much to be protected and rural areas in Perú.  The
> introduction of GE crops
> will exacerbate the process of deterioration of the
> peasant economies, which
> will lead to a genetic erosion of some of the crops
> that right now are
> feeding the world like potatoes and corn.
> 
> And at the end of the day, the only benefits will
> the for the transnational
> corporations like Monsanto and others, while Perú
> will stay only with the
> impacts of GMOs.
> 
> For this reasons, we ask the international community
> to support our campaing
> against this law.  It has to be approved by the
> President of the country.
> 
> So, we kindly ask you to direct letters to
> 
> 
> Doctor
> Alejandro Toledo Manrique
> Presidente Constitucional del Perú
> Fax: 0051 1 311 43 07
> 
>   Asking him not to approve this law (Ley General de
>  Promoción de la
> Biotecnología en el Perú) 

====== 

Carmelo Ruiz Marrero

http://carmeloruiz.blogspot.com/
http://bioseguridad.blogspot.com/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/carmeloruiz/

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