Indonesian decision to grow GM crops in 2012 raises concerns

A group of NGOs advocating agricultural issues are calling on the Agriculture Ministry to revoke its new regulation that allows cultivation of genetically modified organisms (GMO).

The Executive Director of the Indonesian Center for Environmental Law, Henri Subagiyo, said in a press conference on Thursday that the GMO regulation was flawed, so it should be revoked or reviewed.

Early this month, the ministry issued a regulation on the testing, assessment and removal of crop varieties, which gives farmers the green light to grow GMO crops.

The NGOs said the regulation was counter to the Environment Law and threatened the ecosystem.

"The Environment Law requires all GMO products to undergo an environmental impact analysis [Amdal] before being used, especially for commercial purposes. The new regulation did not specifically stipulate that,” Hendri said.

The regulation only stipulated that the GMO products follow biosafety requirements, which is likely to function as a recommendation, rather than an Amdal, which includes a thorough assessment before declaring a GMO safe for the environment.

Hendri added that the regulation also did not stipulate environmental risk analysis.

On the same occasion, Tejo Wahyu Jatmiko, the national coordinator for the Alliance for Prosperous Villages, said the government was reckless in issuing the regulation, knowing that the transgenic products could damage the environment. “The regulation poses a threat to the environment because the planted GMO varieties could change local ecosystems and could contaminate organic crops,” he said.

He said that Indonesia had tried to use agribusiness giant Monsanto’s genetically modified cotton plant seeds in South Sulawesi in 2001. However, the modified genes spread into the local cotton plants and harmed the local ecosystem.

"In the South Sulawesi case, farmers were forced to spray pesticides because the cotton worms were eating the plants that were genetically modified to be resistant to those very worms. There were also other pests such as grasshoppers that unexpectedly started eating the plants,” Tejo said.

The South Sulawesi case was the initial commercial establishment of transgenic plants in Indonesia, it was conducted in seven regencies in South Sulawesi but was eventually terminated by the Agriculture Ministry because it experienced crop failures and caused conflict between farmers and Monsanto’s subsidiary company, Branitha Sandhini.

A transgenic system that produces the GMO has evoked global controversy concerning whether its implementation will result in negative side effects both for the environment and for the people who consume the product.

Regulations of genetically modified plants differs among countries. The US has the least stringent regulations compared to the EU.

Debates on using genetically modified organisms for food are also rife in Indonesia, as the technology was deemed necessary for fostering food security. So far no widely accepted scientific explanations have linked genetically modified foods and human health problems.