NOTE: Thanks to Ralph Miller in Brazil for this translation. For Ralph's translations of GM Watch material into Portuguese:
http://www.gmwatch.org/p1temp.asp?pid=96&page=1

CTNBio is Brazil's National Technical Committee on Biosafety, which has the power to regulate GMOs. Last month CTNBio approved Monsanto's MON 810 GM maize. This month it is Syngenta's turn (Bt11). In the row following the MON810 decision, 7 CTNBio members issued an open letter saying CTNBio was confusing biosafety "with the explicit flag of 'adopting transgenics' in the country." http://www.brazzilmag.com/content/view/8602/54/

EXTRACTS: The result was as expected. Early in the morning, hours before the result of the vote, a pro-GMO PR agency, CIB - Conselho de Informacoes sobre Biotecnologia, financed by the multinational biotech companies (among them Syngenta), already had a note for the press announcing: "CTNBio approves another GMO corn variety, the third approved in Brazil."

At the end of the meeting, one of CTNBio's advisors received an enthusiastic embrace from one of Syngenta's representatives present at the meeting.

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Another GMO corn liberated by CTNBio for commercial cultivation

This time it was Syngenta's Bt 11, an insect resistant corn variety

The result was as expected. Early in the morning, hours before the result of the vote, a pro-GMO PR agency CIB - Conselho de Informacoes sobre Biotecnologia, financed by the multinational biotech companies (among them Syngenta), already had a note for the press announcing: "CTNBio approves another GMO corn variety, the third approved in Brazil."

In order to go directly to the subject and not to disappoint these sectors, CTNBio's president, Walter Colli, proposed and put to the vote, an inversion of the agenda, giving priority to the company's request. The inversion was voted on and accepted. After the debate, the unscientific way in which the Commission operates was made evident once more: 15 out of 27 voted in favor of the liberation. At the end of the meeting, one of CTNBio's advisors received an enthusiastic embrace from one of Syngenta's representatives present at the meeting.

A group of mothers and pregnant women protested at the beginning of the meeting, calling the attention of the risks of GMOs to babies' health. Wearing T shirts with "My child is no guinea pig", they handed out to all CTNBio's members and other participants, a pamphlet drawing attention to the health problems resulting from the consumption of GMO corn, such as allergic reactions. They also mentioned the threat that the release of GMO corn represents to the right to safe food, and how this may jeopardize and destroy family agriculture.

One of CTNBio's reseachers, appointed by SBPC (Brazilian Society for the Promotion of Science), expressed openly and out loud, her view about the role of family agriculture in the Brazilian society. According to Eliane Abdelhay, of the National Cancer Institute, the policies and programs of the Ministry of Agricultural Development and Environment, that aim at strengthening family agriculture and a sustainable use of agricultural biodiversity are a real "ode to sub development." Several CTNBio members answered this base statement, and those who remained silent, consented.