Public consultation of GM maize in Portugal

I just participated in an ongoing public consultation on GM maize in Portugal that is open until March 1 2007 (ie thursday). I sent my comments to "Exmo Sr Presidente de Instituto do Ambiente" via email to cpogm at iambiente dot pt.

Read about it here.

My letter is as follows:

Contributo do Johan Benesch para o processo de Consulta Pública relativo às notificações para a libertação deliberada multi-anual de plantas geneticamente modificadas –
Processos B/PT/06/06 e B/PT/07/01.

Espero e desejo que a decisão final sobre estes dossieres seja efectivamente norteada pelo Princípio da Precaução e que o aspecto da irreversibilidade de qualquer libertação ambiental de transgénicos, tal como reconhecido pela Directiva 18/2001/EC , seja sentido e prevaleça sobre miragens tecnológicas desnecessárias e arriscadas.

Abreviatura: GM - geneticamente modificado/a/os/as

Comentários em geral
1.Qual importância tem o Princípio da Precaução em Portugal? Se há uns casos óbvios para aplicação do Princípio da Precaução, são estes.
2.Avaliação destes tipos de projectos deve ser feito em base científica e experiências prévias.
3.O que diz a legislação portuguesa sobre os interesses ambientais na agricultura?
4.O que diz a legislação portuguesa sobre a comparação entre as tecnologias novas e as melhores práticas ( ou seja benchmarking) na agricultura?
5.O que diz a legislação portuguesa sobre a substitição dos métodos ou dos materiais que têm impactos negativos (na saúde humana e no ambiente) por métodos ou materiais que têm um melhor impacto para o ambiente? Ou seja, o Princípio da Substitução.
6.Por que são os sequenciais NDA (DNA) são classificados como CBI? Devem ser descritos nas patentes!
7.Ambos os pedidos não incluem expêriencias doutros países sobre os impactos ambientais destes tipos de produtos e especificamente destes GMs
8.Ambos pedidos não incluem os efeitos ambientais negativos que resultam do uso estes tipos de GM e que são muito bem conhecidos.
9.Especificamente ambos os pedidos não incluem os efeitos negativos ambientais que um uso mais intenso de herbicidas pode ter. Isto é muito importante por que ambas produtos são desenvolvidos para tolerar uso mais frequente e aplicações mais fortes de herbicidas! Também há um “factor de conveniência” que permite aos agricultores aplicarem mais herbicidas e mais frequentemente e que não está descrito nestes pedidos.
10.Usualmente plantas GM (para tolerância de herbicidas) são mais susceptíveis a períodos prolongados de seca de que plantas normais.
11. Experiências prévias mostram a ineficácia de um limite de 400 metros entre GM e os campos com plantas normais.
12.Em ambos os pedidos faltam quaisquer dados sobre os efeitos ambientais (negativos) do uso de plantas GM e em conjunto com o uso de herbicidas.
13.Em ambos pedidos faltam quaisquer informações sobre outros pedidos semelhantes noutros países europeus.
14.Em que sentido são +6 graus muito frio para milho?
15.Em ambos os pedidos faltam planos de seguros para pagamento e indemnização de custos por causa de contaminação GM nas plantas normais de milho nos campos circunvizinhos (Polluter Pays Principle).
16.Em ambos os pedidos faltam planos para monitorização de polém GM nos campos circunvizinhos.
17.Em ambos os pedidos faltam informações sobre os efeitos tóxicos ou nocivos, que podem afectar por exemplo a comida para gados.
18.Em ambos os pedidos faltam descrições sobre os planos de aplicações de herbicídas durante os ensaios (frequência, concentração etc).
19.Em ambos os pedidos faltam planos de estudo sobre os efeitos ambientais dos herbicídas que vão ser usados.
20.Em ambos os pedidos faltam planos de estudo sobre ervas daninhas e estudos sobre a insurgência (ou seja possivel aumento) de ervas daninhas com tolerância aos herbicidas usadas.
21.Até agora os GM de milho que foram desenvolvidos para serem resistentes aos herbicidas ainda não mostraram nenhum efeito positivo no rendimento da colheita no longo prazo. Provavelmente, muito pelo contrário, falham porque confiam somente em um mecanismo de combate às ervas daninhas que desenvolvem razoavelmente resistência aos herbicidas. GM plantas também são um custo adicional para os agricultores.
22.Syngenta e Pioneer parecem desconhecer literatura ciêntifica sobre os efeitos negativos para o ambiente destes tipos de GM e o uso em conjunto das herbicidas. Os seguintes relatórios são muito ilustrativos e contêm vários artigos de jornais ciêntificos:

I.“Impossible coexistence” de Greenpeace, Abril 2006;
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/press/reports/impossible-coexistence
http://www.greenpeace.org/raw/content/international/press/reports/impossible-coexistence.pdf

II.“Who benefits from gm crops? An analysis of gm crops (1996-1006) de o FOEI, 2007, http://www.foei.org/media/2007/0109.html
http://www.foei.org/publications/pdfs/gmcrops2007execsummary.pdf
http://www.foei.org/publications/pdfs/gmcrops2007highlights.pdf

III.“The Case for A GM-Free Sustainable World” de ISP 2003;
http://www.indsp.org/ISPreportSummary.php
http://www.indsp.org/A%20GM-Free%20Sustainable%20World.pdf

Especificamente por Syngenta
23.O uso do glifosato não é um novidade. É usado há algumas décadas (desde ca 1970).
24.Os objectivos são de avaliar resíduos de glifosato, selectividade e eficiência do glifosato para o GM milho GA21. A empresa Syngenta já sabe tudo sobre isto, do conhecimento que tem de outros campos com áreas semelhantes como seja o clima. Por que razão quer a Syngenta realmente fazer este ensaio?
25.Na análise sobre os efeitos ambientais falta qualquer referência aos conhecimentos sobre os efeitos ambientais negativos do milho com tolerância contra glifosato que também é provavelmente usado com mais frequência neste caso.


Especificamente por Pioneer
26.Este variedade de GM milho tem o dobro da resistência ou seja tem resistência contra dois tipos de herbicidas. Isto sugere a ocorrência de ervas daninhas resistente a um ou a outro tipo de herbicida. A empresa Pioneer esta a incentivar o ocorrência de super ervas daninhas, ou seja de ervas daninhas multi-resistentes?!
27.O Pioneer diz que efeitos ambientais negativos deste GM milho ainda não são registados. Mas como é que é os efeitos têm sido estudados? Há estudos sobre qualquer um estes tipos de tolerância?
28.O parecer da Plataforma OGM Fora de Prato de 2006 sobre ensaios de campo de Pioneer também contém informação muito importante sobre a empresa Pioneer e os ensaios dela.

600000 signatures, only 400000 to go

The campaign 1 million against nuclear power has 600000 signatures.

Mine is on the list.
Why not add yours as well?
For a better future for us all!

Project Freesheet and müsli bars

Looking around Braga for free sheets, ie issues of Metro, laying around to make a picture for the Project Freesheet and on Flickr. Anyway didn't find any.

Picking up an issue of Metro from one of the stands on Campus de Gualtar I saw in the fine print that the Metro in Portugal is printed on recycled paper. I think they are very lone doing that in Portugal. Not even the environmental NGO Quercus is doing that with its magazine...

In the 2007-02-15 issue of the National Metro in Portugal one article says that not all food rich in fibres are good. Perhaps low in sugar but might be full with fat. One the same note, Müsli bars usually are full with sugars. Hint: if the müsli bar is coated with white chocolate is has got both plenty of sugar and fat. So look for the label for how many calories they contain!

Just things Vol 2 Iss 2 is out!

The recovered businesses of Buenos Aires:
http://justthings.info/alternative.

101 Ways, 360 and smoking ban

Internet is full of lists on how to improve your environmental impact.

Here is one with 101 points.

Would you use a bank that cannot count?
In Portugal the BES - the holy spirit bank (sic!) - has a commercial saying that if you want a new direction in life you should take a 360 degree turn with them. It is just than turning 360 is making a full circle so you are back where you started. If they really wanted to make full use of the angle analogy they would choose 90.

A recent Swedish report claims that non-smoking personnel that work in bars have much less problems with coughing and red eyes after the smoking ban in bars and restaurants were implemented in Sweden.

A very close shave indeed

Some people complain over buzzing sounds. It guess if you live so close to a power line that you can poke on it with a stick you are entitled to forward such complaints.



Found in Braga near this roundabout. Today the house was not on google maps, but you can see a faint shadow of the power line pylon.

The Portuguese regulations say around 1 metre for this type of power line (I guess it is 20 kV). The people at norverde probably thought that no one would notice the power line. Maybe some one will confuse it with the clothes line and put out clothes to dry on it ...

PS:
Rumour has it that the when the company that builds the new shopping mall on the plot between the green building and FeiraNova got their permit the head quarters of one of the political parties in Braga was started being refurbished. But, who believes in rumours ...

Plant 1000000000 trees!

During UNs 12th climate conference Wangari Maathai and Prince Albert of Monaco with the support of UN launched the One billion trees campaign.

In the tropics there are 3 billion billion (18 zeros) trees. So it might seem like a very small drop.

The one billion trees are intended to impede erosion and provide income.

Westerners used to suggest plantation of eucalyptus but is so thirsty it will only dry out rivers. And honey from bees living in a native trees gives a lot more profit than one eucalyptus tree.

Unlike most actions in this your are yourself supposed to plant a tree (or even better many trees) and take care of them.

5 positive things about Portugal

Just bough a copy (rather a big bag full of different papers) of the saturday issue of Expresso. The section called Unica containts 5 interviews with green entrepreneurs.

ValorCar - recycles old cars. Strips them of parts and recycle or reuse them.

Mario Sua Kay - architect that designs energy efficient houses. He says that we he started people were not impressed with his ideas. Now people are starting to pay attention but still very few environment friendly houses in Portugal.

AoSol - An all Portuguese solar panel company. They design, make and sell solar panels for heating water. All of it in Portugal. They are now developing solar powered systems for desalination of ocean water and purification of grey water. It is free energy they say.

MultiRecolha - They collect used deep frying oil from restaurants. From that they make either oils from machines or diesel.

Quinta do Vale Pequeno - Organic winemaker - Inspired by nature the owner (Luis Mendes) decided that agrotoxins were not necessary. Now they grow grapes and a large variety of fruits and vegetables using organic agriculture. From that they make wines, jams and conserves etc. All ecological!

Portugal really need some heroes, some good examples of how to use good practises. Here they are, enjoy!

Gore frenzy in Lissabon

Two days ago Al Gore was i Lissabon to show his movie and give a talk. Going for the talk was something like 500€!

The day after (ie yesterday) Jornal de Negocios was full with articles about climate chaneg and related issues. The editorial said that it is bit too convenient to only put the blame on Bush. In stead we all contribute to the global warming so we all should contribute to get on the green wagon.

Also, RPT1 had a long interview with plenty of slides with some Portuguese scientists from various field describing what is happening, what is the cause and what we can do about it.

In short Gore frenzy!
Hope it will last, not just because of Gore.

KIVA - here is how you can be a micro-financier

The Nobel Peace prize 2006 was given to Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank that he founde for their efforts to create economic and social development from below. It works by giving microcredits. But if you go the Grameen bank website you can only donate money ...

Instead if you on want to put up some money in order to provide micro loans KIVA is the choice for you. You can choose to whom and how much you are willing to lend. Typically one third world entrepreneur gets funding from many persons, thus spreading the risk for those that cough up with the money. Typically the entrepreneurs want to take a loan on 500 to 2000 USD with expected pay back within 6 months to 2 years.

Remember it is a loan.
So if you get the money back you can make them available to another micro-entrepreneur.

Modern art in Braga

Here is a typical example of modern art in Braga:



This is an installation in a garden near the Gualtar Campus of University of Minho. In the corner of N103 (Nova Estrada) and Rua do Bairro Henriqueta.

You can just hear the kids:
Mom, why is there a modern statue in the garden?

Mom Silvia: - "Rui and Ana, dont play in the garden! Remember what happened when poor Eduardo was here last time..."

I guess this house has absolutely no value on the open market ...

No more bacalhau?

The Portuguese still believe that there is endless amounts of cod fish with which they can make bacalhau, or actually the actual bacalhau (dried salted cod fish) is caught in the North Sea and dried and salted in Norway.

Greenpeace and WWF in last December were disappointed with the still large quota of cod fish that the EU fishing ministers agreed upon. The ministers claim that they need to think about both fish stocks and fishers. But Greenpeace and WWF say that the fishing ministers as usual are mocking scientific concerns that the quotas still are way above sustainable levels.

I think the price for bacalhau has gone up in Portugal the last years.

But anyway, the bacalhau is not the most tasty dish on earth. I for one would not be sorry if the Portuguese altogether gave up their bacalhau, and let the cod fish recuperate, at least for a decade or so ...

carbon dioxide negative biodiversity

In stead of growing maize (corn) or soy beans one could use a mixture of grasses to make biofuels. Since the grasses catch more CO2 than will be released during production of the grass and biofuels transformation than is done with maize and suy. In the case of maize and soy only a small part of the plant is used. With grasses the whole plant, above ground, is used. Also, the grasses are much easier to grow since they are sturdier. This in part comes from the inherent biodiversity of having many grasses growing on the same plot. Even if one type does not produce so much the over all yield is more stable over time. Also these kinds of grasses can be grown on lands that are degraded. Introducing grasses is good because that will decrease erosion.

See the article on: http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1133306.

Notably with the grasses the "need" for gene modification is gone.
And so the need for over-spraying with pesticides.

A reflection over performance and cap-and-trade

In Jornal de Negocios2007-01-05 Franquelim Alves claim that cap and trade of CO2 emission will delay EUs development of alternative energy sources. That is a bit odd because it is aimed at encouraging companies to straighten up their or at least decrease their fossil fuel dependence.

He uses a graph in which the increase in CO2 emissions in the US has increased less in the US than in EU during 2000-2004. Has he missed that the eco-foot print per capita of the US is twice as large as in the EU? Between 1990-1995 there was actually a decrease in CO2 emissions in EU15. I wonder what we did right then? At the same time US increased its emissions by little over 6%.

He continues to say that encouragement rather than restrictions are vital to foster innovations in sustainable energy systems. He is at least half right. I say why not use both?! Cap and trade is an American invention that first was implemented in the EU. Nowadays there also exist voluntary cap and trade in the USA. Also, plenty of states and towns in the US have started to implement their own regulations and laws to meet the requirements in the Kyoto Protocol. Notably, a group of large energy "producers" in the US has recently confronted President Bush to implement the Kyoto Protocol on federal level. I don´t know if if is out of environmental concern or that different rules in all states will make it more difficult to compete on national level in the US (and of course having to comply with up to 50 sets of rules does not anyone happy).

Alves goes on to say that one shouldn´t indiscriminately put up wind power towers or start biofuel plantations everywhere because they may have negative impact on the local environment. I couldn´t agree more. If there are environmental concerns make an Environmental Impact Assessment! If not even those that claim to take environment concerns are able to do just that it would be really tragic ...

Things are moving, slowly

It is fairly easy to get the impression that Portugal is an underdeveloped country when it comes to environmental issues and understanding. But the things are starting to look better.

In a recent article in the daily economy newspaper Jornal de negocios a comparison was made beyween the relative evolution of GNP and two environmental indicators, CO2 and sulphur emissions. And looks like this for 1995 and 2004:



In relative terms a very weak improvement CO2 per GNP and a definitive improvement in sulphur emissions in relative terms although they were on the same level. Because of EU directives the sulphur content of fossil fuels have gone down leading to improvements in energy "production" but instead transport and constructions has decreased the environmental efficiency over this period. It only points to fact that it is not economy but technology and effective regulations that govern environmental impact (many neoliberal economist want to claim the opposite).

That constructions is not efficient is fairly evident, things take time, quite literally, and newly build houses are falling part only 10 years after completion. An EU directive on certification of the energy efficiency of houses (similar to the labelling of white wares) came into force a few weeks, but there is a lack of technicians to perform the certification (Metro National Portugal 2007-01-26). Not to mention the lack of know-how on how to build sustainable and energy efficient houses and other buildings ... or rather the know-how has not been translated to the persons that own construction companies and those that lead the constructions. I have a feeling that the workers do as they are told even if they know the boss is wrong.

In the same issue of JdN it says that by 2010 half government and other authority competitions for constructions and other procurements should include environmental aspects. Again, the biggest hurdle is building up buyer competence.

On a more positive note S Pedro de Moel has been chosen as the first site in Portugal for the evaluation of wave energy. Also, energy wasting light bulbs is expected to soon be subjected to a CO2 emission tax. In more general terms the current government seem to positive to the increase of biogas and innovative solar energy installations.

Even so Portugal has just abided by to EU directives that demand environmental assessment and public feedback on programmes and plans that will have considerable environmental impact. I am not sure where they draw the line.

So, things are slowly moving in the right direction for Portugal.
Boa!