They granted the permission despite the doubts and the lack of information on the impacts of large scale GM pineapple, says the Network which comprises ecologist, peasant and indigenous organizations, as well as academics, professionals and individuals interested in the protection of biodiversity.

LM Veintiuno is a corporation that has been experimenting with GM pineapple since 2005 in the south of the country, in the lands that belong to company Pindeco, a subsidiary of transnational corporation Del Monte with plots of cultivated lands of less than three hectares. In November of 2010 LM Veintiuno began formal proceedings to be able to plant 80 to 200 hectares of Piña Rose in Puntarenas province.

The National Technical Commission on Biosafety of the State’s Phytosanitary Service of the Ministry of Livestock and Agriculture, issued an order in favour of expanding the areas planted with GM
pineapple.

“The decision was taken despite all the grounded warnings from different ecologist and peasant organizations, as well as from 20 lawmakers on the negative collateral damage” that the expansion would have, reads a press release issued by the Network on October 31.

Agronomist engineer Laura Orias, representative of the Network at the National Technical Commission on Biosafety said the resolution is taken “even despite the fact that there are many doubts and lack of information about the impacts of large scale GM pineapple”.

Meanwhile, environmental activist Fabian Pacheco, representative of the ecologist sector before the Commission, considered that “authorizing 10 lines of GM pineapple is unacceptable until there are objective studies that guarantee GM crops are harmless. "GM crops entail environmental risks and risks on human health, planting these lines of GM pineapple is irresponsible and it mocks the Precautionary Principle”. The environmentalists demand the enforcement of this principle in a country that also has GM soy and cotton plantations.

On February 17 several representatives of the opposition Citizen Action Party and Frente Amplio, and members of the Green Bloc, a network of ecologist organizations of Costa Rica, held a press conference at the Legislative Assembly in the capital, San Jose, to demand the rejection to the demand for expanding GM pineapple plantations submitted by LM Veintiuno.

Representative Jose Maria Villalta, of the Frente Amplio party said “granting these permissions would be ecologic suicide for Costa Rica, it would be a disaster. We have not been able to supervise conventional pineapple plantations, there are more and more problems of water pollution, erosion and destruction of forests, something the authorities have not been able to control even though these are conventional crops”.

Villalta also said that as shown by a TV report of the Information and Communication Unit of the National Association of Public and Private Employees: “not even Europe, with their scientific, technological and economic capacity has been able to carry out conclusive studies on the impact of GM pineapple on their lives, health, the environment and the economy”.

Eight municipal governments in Costa Rica have banned the harvest of GM crops based on the Precautionary Principle, while they promoted organic farming and the rescue of peasant seeds.

Costa Rican ecologist organizations would like to start an international awareness raising campaign about the new permission granted to GM pineapple plantations in the country, as they believe raising awareness among European consumers may contribute to the environmentalists’ rejection to this monoculture plantation and its expansion.

Photo: http://www.freshplaza.es