Previous Story
Use of transgenics in Ecuador
Posted On 10 Feb 2014
Ecuador, by the deficit of corn and soybeans is forced to import raw material of fields where seeds are genetically modified for the feed of pigs, poultry, fish, shrimp and cattle although the 2008 Constitution forbids the their planting and marketing.All the soybeans that Bolivia, Brazil and Argentina produced are genetically modified. In the United States is 95%. From those countries Ecuador brings no less than 96% of the soy extract. Last year it spent $321 million in almost 600 thousand tons.
Among the arguments of the opponents, is that this seeds are insecure; create resistance to antibiotics; also there are no known effects of these foods; affect the environment; they cause allergies and generate resistant pests.
On the contrary, members of the cooperative of peasants, located in Maringá, in the South of Brazil, see advantages since the seeds are resistant to the armyworm or lobster, fungi and viruses, they are working on enhanced soybeans that can withstand the lack of water. Avoiding the use of agro-chemicals, water and the cost of labor.
Adriana Brondani, Executive Director of the Brazilian Council of biotechnology (CIB), expresses that they are just myths. “There are cases in which biotechnology resolves the problems of hunger”, this due to the population increase.
