The South African government has been implicated in an international row over the export of seed maize to Kenya which has been contaminated with a genetically modified variety banned in every African country except SA.
The director of the African Centre for Biosafety, Mariam Mayet, blamed seed-bulking facilities for the "contamination," but said the government should shoulder blame for the scandal. The seed was exported by the South African branch of US seed giant, Pioneer Hi-Bred.
"The maize seeds are contaminated with a genetically engineered variety - Mon810 - belonging to Monsanto that has not been approved in Kenya," said Mayet. "GM (genetically modified) maize Mon810 contains a novel gene that is considered unsafe and banned in several European countries."
The contamination was detected by Greenpeace International, which in co-operation with environmental and farmers' organisations in Kenya, commissioned tests of 19 seed varieties bought in stores in key maize-producing areas across Kenya.
The tests, by an independent European laboratory, revealed that Pioneer's seed maize PHB 30V53, sold in the Eldoret region of Kenya, was contaminated with Mon810 maize, a variant that is genetically engineered to be insect-resistant.
Last month, said Mayet, the French government decided to ban the cultivation of Monsanto's maize Mon810 based on several environmental concerns.
Pioneer Hi-Bred spokesman Jeff Johnson denied this, saying France placed a moratorium on the planting of this seed for one season only. "In fact, Mon810 is fully approved in the European Union (EU), and last year was grown in eight EU countries on 110000ha. Biotech seed maize allows for higher production and lower input costs, resulting in greater income and competitiveness for growers of all sizes and scales."
Johnson said the possible reason for Mon810 showing up in the Kenyan seed was wind pollination, although the crops were grown many kilometres apart.
Mayet said the Kenyan seeds' "contamination" came on the eve of a United Nations meeting to develop international liability rules for genetically engineered products.
Johnson said Pioneer's testing protocols had "extremely high standards" that "meet or exceed" purity requirements of the major maize-producing countries.
"Even given these extraordinary measures, trace amounts of biotech material (called low-level presence) can occur from time to time. Adventitious presence of biotech products does not compromise food safety," he said. Absolute "100% purity" simply did not exist in genetic make-up or in foreign material content. It was not achieved for any agricultural product anywhere in the food chain, he said.
"We can confirm a proportion of the seed sold in Kenya may contain very small trace amounts of biotech material."
Johnson said 12 regulatory bodies worldwide, including the European Commission, had found hybrids with Mon810, marketed as Yieldgard, as safe as conventional corn hybrids. Many farmers in those countries were seeing significant benefits.
Jan Vanaken, of Greenpeace in the Netherlands, said Pioneer "may talk as long as they wish about approval in the EU, but it is a fact five EU countries banned Mon810 maize on health and environmental grounds".
Business Day - South Africa
