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ISIS Press Release Feb. 14, 2001
GM Cotton Fails in Indonesia
Contrary to Monsanto’s claim, its GM cotton
succumbed to drought and insect attack while indigenous variety thrived,
Mae-Wan Ho discovered while on visit to Jakarta.
Monsanto planted 500 hectares of GM cotton within 9
districts of Sulawesi, Indonesia in open ‘field trials’. This
came to light when the company invited journalists to one of the sites
where it claimed the GM cotton out-performed the indigenous variety
planted side-by-side. Konphalindo, a public interest organisation
dedicated to environmental protection, demanded information from the
Department of Agriculture, especially the risk assessment required for
approval of the field trials. That was six months ago. The Department of
Agriculture provided no information on risk assessment, despite repeated
requests. Konphalindo wrote a letter to the top national newspaper Kompas,
which triggered investigations by its journalist.
It transpires that the GM cotton failed to out-perform the
indigenous variety in all but one of the 9 districts. Worse yet, the GM
cotton succumbed to drought and the brown hopper. Vivid photographs showed
the browned-out GM cotton field next to the lush green field of indigenous
cotton, which is resistant to both drought and the brown hopper. One of
the photos appeared in Kompas (8 Feb.) under the headline, "GM cotton
in Sulawesi Suspected Illegal". Hira Jhamtani, founder of
Konphalindo, said, "If Monsanto hadn’t boasted of their ‘success’,
we would never have found this out. We suspect that no safety assessment
had been carried out at all.
" Konphalindo had earlier halted the commercialisation
of Monsanto’s GM cotton with the help of information provided by
ISIS, which drew attention to a strongly worded advice against the
approval of Monsanto’s GM cotton given by UK Government scientists.
They warned of antibiotic resistance genes that would make gonorrhoea
untreatable (see "Monsanto’s GM Cottons & Gonorrhoea",
ISIS Press Release www.i-sis.org.uk)
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