We are sending you the "Letter of Rio Grande do Sul" on GMOs, that came up in a recent public meeting, with more than 2000 participants coming from many parts of the state, and that culminated in the first massive public street demonstration against transgenics in Latin America.

This meeting was the last of a series of regional seminars on the issue, that started on April 99, and that has mobilized broad sectors of society, including, among others, trade unions, farmers, consumers, the movement for the landless farmers, environmentalists, researchers and scientists.

The government of the Rio Grande do Sul state signed a decree in March 99 banning all GMO-releases in the state. It also stopped all the field trials that had been started before the decret because they didn't have a previous environmental impact assesment and destroyed several of them. A law to turn the state a permanent GMO-free area is under discussion at the local parliament.

On August 12, the Federal Judge Antonio Souza Prudente, for the THIRD TIME, denied Monsanto and the Federal Government to release Monsanto's GE-RR soybeans, which had been earlier approved by the CNTBio (Brazil's biosafety commission). The sentence was in favour of IDEC (Institute of Consumers' Defense) and Greenpeace, that had challenged the decision on GMO-releases at the Federal Court.

This sentence can still be challenged, but the inmediate consequence is that Monsanto has lost the possibility of selling their RR-soybeans in time for next planting season in Brazil, and together with the active resistence of the population, it means an important economic, political and moral defeat for the company.

YOU CAN SEND YOUR SUPPORT TO THIS LETTER TO: Centro Ecologico, flaviobo@zaz.com.br

LETTER OF RIO GRANDE DO SUL

The civil society organizations meeting on August 20, 1999 in the city of Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul state, with the objective of discussing transgenic products:

Considering the hundreds of examples of scientific and experimental evidence from various parts of the world, demonstrating that transgenics are a threat and risk to human health and to food security, apart from being transgressors of the harmonious processes of nature; and considering that the level of uncertainty is so high, - a fact recognized by the scientists working on this technology - that even further unforeseen risks may exist;

Considering that the production and the business resulting from research on transgenics in agriculture are in the hands of an ever smaller group of transnational corporations that merge and end up controlling fundamental areas for the survival of humanity and other species, such as through the seeds, the processing and distribution of foodstuffs, the petrochemical industry and biochemistry;

Considering that a fundamental right of citizens as consumers and/or producers to exercise their free choice in consumption and production is being violated since, among other things, the consumer is denied his basic right to information regarding the contents of his food, and farmers are denied the right to save their own seeds for the next season as a result of the introduction of the Terminator gene;

Considering that the economic power of these corporations interferes with political power, e.g. by determining exclusive laws such as patent laws, which eliminate options and impact biodiversity;

Considering that manipulating and crossing vegetable and animal species which would never cross in the billions of years of the existence of this planet is an act of the greatest violence and arrogance, and against ethical behavior;

Facing this huge concentration of power, we demand that:

The federal, state, and municipal governments, based on the precautionary principle, immediately suspend all and whatever action which legalizes the production and commercialization of transgenic foods, whether national or imported;

That resources be allocated and actions undertaken to clarify the risks to the public of this new technological matrix;

That public research be promoted, within principles of ethics, and social, economic and environmental sustainability, oriented toward solving the problems of the majority, rather than to generate greater concentration and dependence;

Civil society in Rio Grande do Sul, through its movements and social, environmental, consumer, men and women farmers' organizations, labor unions, landless rural workers' organizations, cooperatives, and others, affirm their decision to work for a world free of transgenics, beginning in Rio Grande do Sul. We call the organizations and movements from all states of Brazil to undertake similar mobilizations, in this way joining our voices and arms with the current from innumerable parts of the planet -- whether in Asia, Africa, Europe, or in our brother countries in Latin America, in the fight for a world free of transgenics.

 Approved by the plenary and by the following groups:
AAFA-Campo Alegre, AECIA ,AGAPAN, Alunos da Escola Agrotécnica de Cachoeirinha e da Escola Agrotécnica de Viamão, Amigos da Terra, Anama Maquiné, ARFLOR, ARPA-SUL, AS-PTA, CAMP, CAPA Erechim, CAPA Santa Cruz, Capa São Lourenço, Caritas Diocesana-Passo Fundo, Centro de Estudos Ambientais-Pelotas, Centro Ecológico, CETAP, COCEARGS-MST, Com. Ecologia OAB (Ordem Brasileira de Advogados), Comissão de Direitos Humanos-Passo Fundo, Comissaõ Pastoral da Terra, Comité Gaúcho de Ação Cidadã contra a Fome, Conselho Comunitário de Assoc. de Ipê e Antônio Prado, CONTAC (Confederação de Trabalhadores na Industria de Alimentação), Coolméia, COOPASC-Santo Cristo, COOPERAE- Cooperativa Agroecológica de Cândido Godoi, Cooperativa Agrícola Novo Sarandí, Cooperativa dos Pequenos Agricultores de São Lourenço, COOPERVIDA- Jóia, COOPERVITA- Tapejara, Cootrimaio, COPALMA, CRESOL-Jacutinga, CUT, Escola Nova Sociedade-Itapuí, Escolas J. Correia e Dezesseis de Outubro- Jóia, Federação dos Trabalhadores da Alimentação, Feira de Produtos Ecológicos de Passo Fundo e Região, FETAG, Frente Sul da Agricultura Familiar, Fundação Gaia, FUNDEP-Terra de Educar, GIPAS, Greenpeace, IDEC Instituto de Defesa do Consumidor, IDECON-RS, Instituto de Filosofia Berthier Passo Fundo, Movimento das Donas de Casa RS, Movimento de Mulheres Trabalhadoras Rurais, Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra-MST, Movimento dos pequenos agricultores, Núcleo de Luta pela Reforma Agraria "Cio da Terra" UFPEL, Alunos e professores de Projeto Terra Solidaria, Sindicato dos Trabalhadores Rurais de Ipê, Teia Ecológica-Pelotas, UITA, UNAIAC ,UPAN

International Support: Karnataka State Farmers' Association (KRRS), India; Confederation Paysanne, Languedoc, France; Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, USA