POSTED ON BEHALF OF ELISABETH BRAVO

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Dear participants
I am sending a list of priorities, from a Latin American perspective

Risk assessment of living modified plants for biofuels Energy crops are growing exponentially in Latin America. A high percentage of these are gentically modified crops (eg GE soybean and maize), and  it has not been done a proper assessment of its expansion


Risk assessment of living modified trees There are several field trials in some South American countries of GE trees. South America is the region with the highest levels of biodiversity in the planet, and the presence of GM trees have a life cycle much longer than annual crops. It means a very serious risk in the conservation and sustainable use biodiversity. Given the importance of the tree plantation industry in the region, is essential to develop a proper risk assessment to prevent future irreversible impacts.

Environmental risk assessment and monitoring taking into account human health With the exponential expansion of GE soybean in the Southern Cone it has been detected for several years, many impacts on health in Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina. Cases of diseases associated with intensive use of pesticides that are part of the technological package of the GE soy, go beyond the epidemiological statistics in a scenario without spraying.
So in the risk assessments should also evaluate the implementation of the technology package, because in the case of herbicide-resistant crops, these are meaningless without the application of the technology package. To make an assessment only of the GM seeds would mean to address the problem very partially and without the required scientific seriousness, when we are talking about human lives.

In relation with the proposal that risk assessment should used only peer review paper, I have to disagree.  In the case of impact on human health, is total work with other sources such as medical records, statistics, public hospitals, etc. Take note that if we work from a perspective of the receiving environment, there are very few studies done specifically for tropical countries, megabiodiversity, with a great social and cultural complexity, and where the population is subject to a condition of environmental stress and health other industrialized countries.