On August 1, Brazil’s National Biosafety Technical Commission (CTNBio) authorized the commercial release of a new transgenic soybean variety produced by Monsanto, a company owned by Bayer, which for the first time ever in the world will be used with a cocktail that combines four toxic agrochemicals. The authorization includes an exemption from field controls, so that it will be impossible to determine any adverse effects it might have once planted.

Brazil is again being used as a global laboratory by multinational corporations that produce seeds and toxic agrochemicals. Over the last few months, Monsanto pressured the CTNBio—which still has a makeup carved out by former president Jair Bolsonaro— to fast-track this authorization.

It was this same CTNBio that, starting in 2021, began systematically granting field control exemptions for new commercially released GMO crops.

In order to reduce costs, the four herbicides for the recently authorized GMO (i.e., 2,4-D, which is banned in Argentina; dicamba; mesotrione; and glufosinate-ammonium, banned in Europe) will be combined and used in a single application. The harmful effects that this mixture could have on the environment and on human beings have not yet been studied, nor will they be.

The request for authorization was cleverly filed on December 26, 2022, a time of year when people usually have other things on their minds. From then on, the proceeding moved forward smoothly and reached the CTNBio in record time.

While Bolsonaro shaped the makeup of the Committee “to his image and likeness,” he left two environmentally-aware members, for the sake of appearances.

It was precisely one of these members, Leonardo Melgarejo, an agricultural engineer linked to environmental organizations, who requested more information before proceeding to the vote: “I was concerned about the risks, so I asked for additional information,” he said.

“One thing that caught my attention,” Melgarejo continued, “is that this technology leads farmers to apply a mixture of chemicals that has never been used before. This is due to the fact that the four herbicides to which the seed is resistant must be mixed at the time of application”.

“They are going to apply a cocktail that has not been subjected to any risk studies, either by the National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa) or by the Health Ministry. Releasing a technology without taking into account this type of repercussions is dangerous,” the agricultural engineer warned.

According to Gabriel Fernandes, the representative of the Ministry of the Environment who sits on the Commission and the other survivor of Bolsonaro’s purge, the monitoring exemption is problematic because soybean is the country’s leading crop: “We are talking about 46 million hectares,” he noted. “We do not know the impact of these GMOs, of the potential combinations, of what will happen in the medium and long term, nor the scale on which this technology will be adopted,” he concluded.

Lo cierto es que este cultivo sólo fue testeado en tres localizaciones de Estados Unidos, pero la variedad nunca fue liberada comercialmente en ese país. En Brasil se iniciaron plantaciones de prueba, pero su análisis no ha concluido. Estos agrotóxicos nunca han sido testeados combinados, sino sólo individualmente.

Monsanto/Bayer’s approach is crystal clear: let’s go implement this in Brazil where we can do whatever we like. The environment is no issue there, there are no concerns for the rural workers who have to apply the poison, and there is no concern for the potential consumers of the product. At most, there will be collateral damage. As long as productivity is boosted, everything goes! And as the world’s largest soybean producer, Brazil will put pressure on the rest of the market.

Brazil has traditionally been the stand-in market for toxic agrochemicals banned in other parts of the world, especially in the European Union (EU). For example, glufosinate-ammonium —one of the four herbicides to which this transgenic soybean is resistant— was banned in the EU in 2009.

The decision to ban it was based on over 113 studies that found that this substance causes acute and chronic intoxications, seizures, memory loss, and respiratory failure. It also inhibits photosynthesis, a critical process for the survival of plant species, and causes intoxication by bioaccumulation in animals.

According to Megarejo, “by approving this event we’re solving a problem for the chemical industry, which was having trouble placing glufosinate-ammonium after the European ban.” In 2022 —the most recent year for which there is available data— 18.4 thousand tons of this poison were sold in Brazil, where there are currently 42 registered products that contain this active ingredient.

To complete this horror show, grains (viable seeds) are lost in every soybean harvest, and they remain in the field, where they germinate. As soybean crops are often alternated with corn crops, the soil needs to be “cleaned” before sowing, and for that purpose, the use of atrazine is recommended.

This toxic agrochemical was banned in the EU in 2004, after data from environmental monitoring showed groundwater pollution above levels considered acceptable. “Studies reveal that there are still traces of this herbicide in Europe’s rivers,” Sônia Hess, a retired professor formerly with the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC), states.

Hess recalls that, in Brazil, atrazine was authorized in 2003, that is, the year before it was banned in the EU. “Once more,” she notes, “we absorbed much of the market that the industry lost as a result of the product’s ban throughout most of Europe.” In 2022, 77 thousand tons of atrazine were marketed in Brazil. Today there are 78 commercial products registered in the country that contain this active ingredient.

Brazil’s role as a global laboratory for the experiments of multinational agribusinesses emerges clearly from the analysis of certain data. A report produced jointly by the Brazilian publications joio e o trigo¹ and Fiquem Sabendo² found that between October 2022 and August 2024 there were 752 events organized by the Executive Branch of the government in which at least one agribusiness or chemical industry lobbyist or company was present. That makes one such meeting every 4 hours and 48 minutes.

The study also showed that one out of ten of these events were held in the Department of Agricultural Defense (a suggestive name if ever there was one), and that such contacts were more frequent during periods in which laws related to the sector were being discussed.

During discussion of the tax reform, the Ministry of the Economy met 40 times with entities connected with agribusinesses or the chemical industry, and only nine times with civil society organizations.

Meanwhile, half the vetoes imposed by President Lula da Silva against the new toxic agrochemical act were overturned by Congress, and the law is yet to be regulated, so that the provisions adopted under the Bolsonaro administration, which favor agribusinesses, are still in force.

The data also shows that in 58 percent of those meetings between the private sector and the Executive Branch, Bayer, Basf, and/or Syngenta were present.

The report’s findings starkly reveal that the private sector has privileged and frequent access to the federal government, behind closed doors, while participation in spaces meant for debate, such as public hearings, is hindered or prevented. And this is reflected in the most recent policies, which benefit toxic agrochemical manufacturers.

¹https://ojoioeotrigo.com.br/
²https://fiquemsabendo.com.br/