Widespread Planting Of Smuggled GMO Seed In Serbia

by Vesna Peric Zimonjic

(IPS) BELGRADE -- Some farmers knew it, some did not, but GM soy and maize seeds entered Serbia last year.

They sprouted in the flatlands of the northern Serbian province Vojvodina, known as the breadbasket of the country.

"We have discovered 1,000 hectares under GM soy in Vojvodina and destroyed crops in the first 300 hectares," senior province official Igor Kurjacki told journalists last week. "We hope to continue the action."

But neither Kurjacki nor other officials could say how many of 120,000 hectares under soy cultivation in Vojvodina were sown with genetically modified (GM) seeds.

It was only some careful examination by some experts that unearthed the GM nature of the plants.

"The seeds were smuggled into Serbia from Hungary and Romania," says Mirjana Nikolic from the team of experts who discovered the GM crops. "For the uneducated farmers, the promise of healthy and resistant crop was enough. For us it was an uncontrolled experiment."

Confirming the existence of GM crops was simple. Strong herbicide was sprayed over suspect crops. "The GMOs [genetically modified organisms] remained, other plants died immediately," Nikolic said.

The farmers fell for the characteristics that made GM crops attractive at first. They saw promise of high yields, resistance to plant diseases and little nurturing.

Genetic modifications seemed a wonder. "It's a story, for example, of tomatoes being grown in cold climate," says Prof. Miodrag Dimitrijevic who researches plant genetics in the Vojvodina capital Novi Sad. "The solution was found in a gene from the Atlantic codfish resistant to cold, which was introduced in the genetic material of tomatoes."

Scientists did not care to think why those organisms had developed in different manners for thousands of years, he said. "For a while it was promising. It seemed that man was taking the role of God."

Nikolic said it was not clear whether the GM crops are a danger by themselves. But they were seen to make land infertile. "Their roots release certain substances that stimulate growth of undesired micro-organisms. Due to the presence of those micro-organisms, the land becomes infertile after one season. Besides, some of the soy and maize seeds were genetically programmed so that they could not be used for next year's seeding."

Friends of the Earth International (FoEI) warned in a report earlier this week of the negative influence of GM crops in their ten years of existence. "Biotech corporations are still failing to deliver their promised GM crops with clear benefits for consumers or farmers," it said.

"Not only do GM crops have adverse socio-economic impacts...they also created novel and alarming environmental problems such as genetic contamination, and some of them, such as GM oilseed rape in the UK or GM maize in Mexico directly threaten biodiversity," it added.

The FoEI statement was released at the start of a United Nations conference in Kuala Lumpur on GMOs and the potential risk from them.

The discovery of the GM crops last week was a particular blow to Serbia which prides itself on growing healthy food, with hopes of expanding export of naturally grown products to other European countries. The only benefit of years of isolation under the rule of Slobodan Milosevic was the healthy food that Serbia produced -- because sanctions included a ban on import of herbicides and fertilizers.

Both Nikolic and Dimitrijevic say Serbia has failed to introduce clear regulation to stop GMOs. With the disintegration of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia last year, most federal institutions ceased to exist. Among them was the Federal Administration for Genetic Resources.

"Instead we have a law, synchronised with European Union (EU) laws, that says no agricultural product should have more than 0.9 percent of GM material," says former head of the administration for genetic resources Ivana Dulic. "But we lack efficient inspectorates to check on the imported food declaration and things like that. The law is being avoided in the name of profit."

Serbia is not the only country in the Balkans threatened by GM foods. GMO presence in food products has caused outrage in neighbouring Croatia. A random examination of 33 products from supermarket shelves in the eastern town Osijek showed that 16 had GMO substances well above the 0.9 percent EU standard.

"In fact, the declarations on those foods did not show any GMO presence, which was a criminal act by itself," says Josip Milas, head of the Osijek Laboratory for Public Health.

Health authorities in Croatia have now introduced strict control over products imported from Italy, Austria, Belgium and the Czech Republic.

"The sale of such products endangers the ordinary consumer who is not aware of what he or she has brought home to eat," head of the Association for Consumers' Protection Vesna Brcic told Croatian TV last week. "It doesn't help much if we try to buy domestic products. There are signs that the tomatoes and watermelons grown in our traditional areas of agriculture are practically GM crops, with seeds smuggled from abroad."

Elsewhere in the Balkans (which include Serbia&Montenegro, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Romania and Albania), Slovenia has abandoned plans to introduce GM crops. This followed a strong campaign by the independent Slovenian Foundation for Sustainable Development.

GM crops are known to have been produced in some places in Bulgaria and Romania but Nikolic says inquiries have been blocked by biotech corporations using the absence of proper laws in order to expand business.