PLEASE SUPPORT ACB TO FORCE GOVERNMENT TO DO AN ENVIRONAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT OF A GM CROP.

Please email Minister Buyelwa Sonjica at wateradmin@dwa.gov.za and tell her that you want Goverment to carry out an indpendent environmental impact assessment on the Syngenta GA21 application.

Below is a summary of the letter being sent by African Centre for Biosafety (ACB) which you could use, or write your own.

Your support could pressure the Minister of Environment to demand the first ever Environmental Impact Assessment of a genetically modified crop.

Background: Our government relies on safety data supplied by the applicants (corporations) that are developing and selling GMOs who clearly have vested interests. Government has never carried out their own independent assessment and South Africa has been growing GM crops since 1997.. We need your support to pressurise Minister Sonjica of Department of Water and Environment to do an EIA on an application by Syngenta.

Syngenta has recently applied to government for a permit to commercially release a new event of genetically modified maize, called GA21. This maize is resistant to their herbicide, Touchdown Forte. The technology gives farmers the freedom to spray poisonous herbicide indiscriminately, as the poison will kill everything except the crop, which is modified to survive the poison. The African Centre for Biosafety (ACB) has called on the Minister to use her power to call for an EIA for this event. We hope you will support us in this call.

Below is an excerpt from our letter to the Minister, the full text can be found at http://biosafetyafrica.org.za/dir/request to minister.pdf

You can also find our full objection to Syngenta's application, which covers our concerns on the science, health, environmental and socio-economic impacts at http://www.biosafetyafrica.org.za/index.php/20090828238/Objections-to-Syngentas-application-for-commodity-import-of-triple-stacked-maize/menu-id-100023.html