GMOs in Russia

1
GMOs in Russia
January 2005

• Victoria Kolesnikova
• Ecological Club Eremurus of
• The CIS Biosafety Alliance
• 7-910-423-88-54
• eremurus_at_mtu-net.ru
• Moscow, Russia

2
GMOs in Russia

• GM crops in Russia
• food, fields
• GM-lobbyists
• Legislation
• Labs, test methods
• Public control
• Conclusions

3
GM crops in Russia food, fields

• GM-crops, approved for human consumption
• Soy (1 line)
• Maize (4 lines)
• Potato (2 lines)
• Sugar beat (1 line)
• Rice (1 line)
• GM-potato was studied in the Institute of
  Nutrition of the Russian Academy of Medical
  Science, all negative information was unavailable
  for public, all positive was submitted to higher
  authorities and open to public.

4
GM-crops in Russia food, fields

• 60 of food import contains GMOs (Monastyrskiy,
  2004).
• The majority of it is soy. Import of GM-soy has
  grown in 150 times since 2000 (customs
  statistics).
• GM-soy is used in dozens of product types meat,
  dairy, sweets, babyfood.
• GM-food is a problem of Russian cities. Rural
  regions mostly produce local natural products.

5
GM-crops in Russia food, fields

• As Russia still does not plant GMOs the CIS
  Biosafety Alliance calls for national moratorium.
• No permission has been granted to GM-plants.
• Field trials took place
• in 1997 - 2002 potato, soy, maize, sugar beat,
  apple, strawberry, pear.
• There is no official ban on growing GM-crops.

6
GMO lobbyists

• In Russia the following biotech TNCs present
• Monsanto (soy, potato, maize for human
  consumption in 2003 claimed that leaves Russia)
• Syngenta (maize for human consumption)
• Aventis Crop Science (sugar beat for human
  consumption)
• Bayer Crop Science (only chemicals)
• DuPont (only chemicals)

7
Legislation

• Law On State Regulation Of Genetic Engineering
  (1996 ).
• Consumer Law (December 2004 ?. any amount of
  GMO content must be labeled).
• Law On State Environmental Assessment (GMOs are
  subject to a mandatory environmental assessment)
• State standards on qualification (2) test methods
  PCR and bio-chip
• Russia did not sign Cartagena Biosafety Protocol.
• Other documents
• Ecological Doctrine of Russia (August 2002).
• Priorities of State Biosafety Policy (December
  2003)

8
Labs, test methods

• State (Sanitary control Inspection, the Institute
  of Nutrition)
• Commercial in Moscow more than 10, most of them
  list GMO testing in their offer among other
  analysis the can provide.
• Scientific (on the base of Institutes) for
  research purposes and partly on commercial basis.
  Available for public.

9
Public control

• Since 1997 the following public campaigns are
  run
• ISEU Biosafety Campaign (1997)
• Regional campaigns of local NGOs, for instance
  the one in Tatarstan Republic of Russia Do we
  need bigmac if we have echpochmak!? (tatar pie
  with meat inside)
• Genetic Campaign of Greenpeace-Russia (2002)
• All-national Association of Genetic Safety (2004)
• CIS Biosafety Alliance (2004)

10
Public Control

• 2004
• "Frisosoy" soy protein for baby food (Friesland
  Nutrition, Netherlands) 50
• "Beby" soy and rice mix cereal (Kolinska,
  Slovenia) 100
• "Nestogen" dry milk mix (Nestle, Switzerland) 50
• "Alfare" nutritious dry mix (Nestle, Netherlands)
  100
• "Tip-top", vegetable mix puree, (Nutricia,
  Poland-Netherlands) 20
• Puree "Vegetables with beef (Nestle, Finland) 5
• Puree "Maize with potato" (Semper, Sweden) 100
• "Tutteli" dry milk mix (Valio, Finland) 100
• "Lamb" puree (Gerber, USA) 50
• "Beby" chocolate and hazel-nut cereal (Kolinska,
  Slovenia) 100

• According to the results of independent tests
  conducted in 2004 practically ALL large Western
  babyfood manufacturers use GMOs in Russia (they
  may know about it or not)

11
Public control

• Positive labeling has being introduced
• This is an example of famous Ostankino meat unit
  (label is saying genetically safe product)

12
Public control

• First GM Court Case in Russia
• June 2004 publication of the results of
  independent babyfood tests 7 largest producers
  found GMO contaminated)
• Nestle brings a reputation case against
  All-National Association of Genetic Safety
  (initiator of tests)
• July-August wide public campaign started by
  ISEU and CIS Biosafety Alliance
• August beginning of case consideration
• November court rejects the suit of Nestle
• December - Nestle refuses to appeal.

13
Conclusions

• Positive
• Public awareness is growing.
• Independent labs start to appear and be available
  for public.
• NO GMOs are grown.

• Negative
• Absence of any biosafety legislation. No act on
  GMO free zones or moratorium.
• Wide presence of GMOs in food.
• Labeling requirements are not implemented.
• Weak presence of Russian position on
  international level
• Public control activities still weak to make
  decision-makers and TNCs transparent.