Goodbye GMO - goodbye WTO?
After Russia’s accession to the World Trade Organization (22 August 2012), the Russian market, according to WTO standards, should reconsider its, let's say, relation to genetically modified products or GMOs (genetically modified organisms), in effect declaring them safe for human health. For reference: the process of generating GMOs consists in creating systems at the molecular-genetic level outside the living organism (for example, plants) with the subsequent “replanting” of these artificially created systems into living organisms. The purpose of this process is the creation of GMOs of genetically modified food (GMF) so that the growing human population does not have a shortage of food. At the initial stage, it was planned that food created on the basis of GMOs with the help of humans would become a real food panacea for the poorest countries of the world (from Haiti to Somalia, from Afghanistan to Sudan).
Plants derived from the creation of GMOs, usually have a high resistance to the effects of fungi, insects; they are able to survive in arid areas, requiring a minimum of water for irrigation, or not requiring it at all, being saturated with minimal amounts of moisture from the soil.
Plant GMOs can change the constituent structural chains of proteins, fats and carbohydrates, which makes scientists think about how dangerous systematic consumption of GMFs can be for a human body that is accustomed to natural food. However, in the scientific world to this day there are disputes over whether genetically modified products can cause harm to the human body or not. Numerous experiments conducted in various laboratories around the world enable one scientist to draw conclusions that the systematic use of GMOs in food provokes an increase in mortality from oncological diseases, and another - the possibility of putting the findings of the first into question, accusing of fabricating data. At the same time, some say that they are fighting for informational objectivity, trying to protect humanity from a new threat. They accuse supporters of the introduction of GMOs that they profess purely commercial interests. Their opponents say that all the conclusions of the first ones are contrived, and that these scientists simply do not want to be aware of the pace of development of genetic engineering, which is constantly subjected to persecution and criticism, and do not want to “feed the hungry.”
It is the complexity of the assessments of scientists today does not allow to make unambiguous conclusions and at the state legislative level - conclusions about the harm of GMOs for humans. That is why GMO producers use confusion when promoting their products to certain markets, hoping for success due to the relatively low price for products of this kind and its substantial volumes as a percentage of the so-called environmentally friendly products (of natural origin). Some countries impose a categorical ban on the import of GMOs and the cultivation of these organisms on their territory, others oblige manufacturers to label products, in fact, the entire responsibility for purchasing them “hanging” on the buyer, and others are not at all ready to go de facto into details product or not there.
Surprisingly, to this day, with a seemingly active regulation of the import of GMOs, Russia belongs to the third group of countries. But in fact, the rules here are quite blurred.
The first legislative act, which in Russia gave the right to a certain regulation of genetically modified objects, appeared 5 July 1996 of the year. This is №86-ФЗ “On state regulation in the field of genetic engineering activity” signed by B.N. Yeltsin. For the first time in our country, this law defines both GMOs and transgenic organisms, and also states what decisions the government intends to take in connection with the appearance of virtually new food products in the world.
From Art. 5 No.86-FZ (1996 year):
The main directions of state regulation in the field of genetic engineering
The main directions of state regulation in the field of genetic engineering are:
improving the human condition and protecting his health;
protection and restoration of the environment, preservation of biological diversity;
increasing the efficiency of agriculture;
increasing the efficiency of the mining and processing industries;
ensuring the preservation and improvement of personnel, professional training in the field of genetic engineering.
Genetic engineering activities should be based on the following principles:
safety of citizens (individuals) and the environment;
the safety of clinical trials of methods of gene diagnostics and gene therapy (gene therapy) at the level of somatic cells;
(the paragraph is introduced by the Federal Law from 12.07.2000 N 96-FZ)
the general availability of information on the safety of genetic engineering activities;
mandatory confirmation of compliance of products containing the results of genetic engineering activity, with full information on the methods of production and properties of this product;
(in the edition of the Federal Law from 30.12.2008 N 313-FZ)
state registration of genetically modified organisms intended for release into the environment, as well as products obtained using such organisms or containing such organisms.
(the paragraph was introduced by the Federal law of 04.10.2010 N 262-ФЗ).
The main directions of state regulation in the field of genetic engineering are:
improving the human condition and protecting his health;
protection and restoration of the environment, preservation of biological diversity;
increasing the efficiency of agriculture;
increasing the efficiency of the mining and processing industries;
ensuring the preservation and improvement of personnel, professional training in the field of genetic engineering.
Genetic engineering activities should be based on the following principles:
safety of citizens (individuals) and the environment;
the safety of clinical trials of methods of gene diagnostics and gene therapy (gene therapy) at the level of somatic cells;
(the paragraph is introduced by the Federal Law from 12.07.2000 N 96-FZ)
the general availability of information on the safety of genetic engineering activities;
mandatory confirmation of compliance of products containing the results of genetic engineering activity, with full information on the methods of production and properties of this product;
(in the edition of the Federal Law from 30.12.2008 N 313-FZ)
state registration of genetically modified organisms intended for release into the environment, as well as products obtained using such organisms or containing such organisms.
(the paragraph was introduced by the Federal law of 04.10.2010 N 262-ФЗ).
Article 10 of the same law explains how the general accessibility of information on the safety of GMOs should be implemented. According to the letter of this article, the company engaged in the creation of GMOs should provide information about the products, quote: "at the request of interested parties." In Article 11 it is added that such products must undergo mandatory standardization, certification and declaration.
It is worth recalling that the document was signed by Yeltsin on July 5 1996. This is the time when Yeltsin won (as is commonly believed) in the elections in the second round, but in fact until the inauguration in August 1996 of the year disappeared altogether from public policy due to poor health. It is noteworthy that it was during this period that the law appeared, which, by and large, apart from the definition of GMOs and genetic engineering, little was regulated at all.
The letter of this law, as can be seen, was at least corrected from the above mentioned article 5, but the essence remained the same - it was simply impossible to obtain exact information about the harm of such products. It is from 90-s that Russia has become a country that is actively importing products based on genetically modified soybeans, corn, rice, and sugar beets. But imports by import, but only the citizens of Russia did not have any effective opportunity to find out what they are taking as food. And for obvious reasons, for the majority of Russians in 90's, where the problem was more generally to feed their family than the problem of what was the composition of the food products purchased in stores ...
Over time, when the world began to say that GMOs and transgenic products may well lead to irreversible processes in the human body, the interest of Russians in the composition of what they eat (that is, what we eat) has increased significantly. It would seem that it is just right to comply with the same Yeltsin federal law, at least in terms of “the general availability of security information ...”, but there’s a problem - with accessibility, everything is extremely difficult at the moment, and it’s probably even more difficult with security.
In other words, today GMOs in Russia are only imported from abroad, but to find an inscription on the product that it was made using GMO technology is, to put it mildly, difficult, or rather, almost impossible.
As a simple experiment, your obedient servant decided to study labels and stickers of a wide variety of food products (cereals, canned goods, fruits, vegetables in packages, etc.) in one of the large chain stores. And what is interesting: the overwhelming majority of such stickers contain the inscription “without GMOs” or “does not contain GMOs” - even on cans of canned corn and packages with so-called “soy meat” ... On some products there is no such inscription, which gives reason to think , either that “without GMOs - and a hedgehog, they say, is understandable”, or that GMOs definitely have them ...
Using the “granted” No. 86-FZ from 1996, the opportunity for “interested parties” to know about safety and certification of genetically modified products, I try to clarify this fact (fact of safety and certification) with the administration of the outlet. The choice fell on such a product as Mexican corn tortillas with chili pepper (as it appeared in Russian decoding, simply pasted on plastic wrap over foreign text), the shelf life of which is already 1 a year ... No, of course, the author of the material even under fear the death penalty would not have acquired this “long-playing” wonder product of a suspiciously red-orange color - just something suggested that it could not be just ordinary corn meal, ordinary egg powder, ordinary vegetable oil, salt and th pepper, as indicated on the label ...
Approximately in 15 minutes after the “request” a store director appeared (and this is a middle-aged lady), who showed a photocopy of the paper on the conclusion of an agreement with the company that supplies these same “flat cakes”, like some other products. On paper, as you can guess, there was no information on the composition of the products, but it was reported that the main office of the manufacturer is located in Mexico with the full address ... Indeed, the Mexican cakes ... And the director, apparently, somewhere deep down, barely holding back homeric laughter, advised to go directly to this company, stating that it is, they say, they are there for the products and are responsible, and we, they say, only sell ...
For some reason, I didn’t want to fly to Mexico in order to find out the composition of red flatbreads ... And it seemed that, apparently, the whole calculation was for such lazy Russian buyers like me. Another could have found the strength, found the means and rushed to the descendants of the Maya in order to clarify that no GMOs were really used in baking baked products, and therefore would become a regular customer of this product in his home town ... But, I dare to assume that 99% of Russian citizens are not going to seek such adventures, even if the company is located much closer to the American mainland. So it turns out that it seems possible to find out the detailed composition (including the method of obtaining this composition), but for this you need to go through a whole “quest”.
And with 1 in July, 2014, Russian government officials are going to allow registration of seeds obtained through GMOs in Russia. These seeds are intended, quote: "for release into the environment." Translating this into a human language, it turns out that from the middle of summer GMOs can be grown in Russia on an agricultural scale, and not only imported from abroad or grown purely for experimental laboratory purposes.
Does this mean that the Russian government finally believed in the safety of genetically modified products? Judging by how much the text in the resolution No. 839 from 23.09.2013, signed by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, is devoted to the need to monitor the situation and the Ministry of Health, and the Ministry of Education and Science, it seems that security may not be smooth.
Russian experts in the field of agriculture immediately after the actual permission from the government to grow GMOs, followed by replanting on Russian fields, sounded the alarm. The main reason for such anxiety is the possibility of over-pollination of conventional crops and crops, obtained with the replanting of GMO systems. To avoid this, you need to start active work on the delimitation of the landing area. But even if the qualitative separation of GMO fields and fields with natural crops takes place, this can lead to unfair competition. Farms that will focus on transgenic and GMO products, by definition, will be in more favorable conditions, since such products, as already mentioned, are excellent against both insects, fungi, and drought, and are significantly cheaper than ordinary vegetables and cereals . It turns out that transgenic wheat or transgenic corn may well displace ordinary wheat or corn. It is possible that there is nothing terrible for human health (in the end, selection was also treated with caution at the time), but the fact is that there are no official reports from scientists about the benefits or harm of GMOs and trans-GMOs. More precisely, there are many reports - unofficial - and, increasingly, in such reports, the role of GMOs and trans-GMOs, to put it mildly, is far from food perfection ...
Against this background, the proposal of representatives of the Federation Council to impose a complete ban on both importing and growing GMOs and transgenes in Russia for agricultural purposes looks very important. One of the authors of such a project is Senator Anton Belyakov, who declares that while there are no official results of experiments on rodents, it is foolish to conduct such “experiments” on humans. According to the senators, Russia has enormous opportunities to grow environmentally friendly, natural products without using gene and transgenic research. These possibilities must be realized in order to turn Russia into one of the world leaders in the production of such products.
In the near future, Russian lawmakers are going to consider the bill (and they obviously need to hurry, as 1 July is not far off), and if it is adopted, the government resolution on 23 September 2013 will automatically become invalid. This is said, by the way, in the State Duma. In the Lower House, the inter-factional group “Russian Sovereignty”, headed by Yevgeny Fedorov, is working on the draft law. The initiative of the two chambers of parliament is supported by many agricultural producers. For the initiative - and the Union of Organic Farming of Russia.
It is noteworthy that after the mentioned concerns of the Federation Council and the State Duma, Dmitry Medvedev spoke about the need to create a new legislative framework for GMOs and transgenes. What kind of legislative base is the prime minister now talking about, who acted with both hands for Russia's entry into the WTO, and who signed a permit document on the registration of GMO seeds in Russia six months ago, is an interesting question ...
At the moment, the main barrier for transgenes and the GMF is, in fact, exclusively local authorities. The governors of the 14 regions of the federation have already declared their regions free of GMOs. But the whole hitch is that it contradicts the principles of the WTO ... Oh, this WTO ... Maybe, even after a complete ban on GMOs and transgenic “sweets”, we (Russia) will finally be excluded from this organization ... This is a holiday ...
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