TRACKING GM DEVELOPMENTS IN ASIA AND THE PACIFIC – THE GM TRACKER
GRAIN has set up a new tracking tool to monitor the developments of GM crops both in the laboratory and in the field in Asia and the Pacific. http://www.grain.org/gmtracker/
The idea behind this monitoring tool draws on requests mostly from groups in Asia who are campaigning against genetic engineering, genetically modified organisms or GM agriculture.
It seemed that despite the existence of databases in other sites, there is still a need for a simple, easy to use matrix that summarises ‘who is doing what where?’ that can easily identify what transgenic crop is being developed, field tested or commercialised, and who are the institutions and companies involved.
The idea for a database was further galvanised last year in a strategy meeting in Asia about genetic contamination. Some people in the group thought that it might be easier to keep an eye on contamination by collectively monitoring GM development in each country and coming up with a ‘common document’ that will be regularly updated and shared among each other.
This is an attempt to act on that idea. And like any collective endeavour, this monitoring tool will only be as active as your participation to add new information. If you have country information to add, update, edit, or delete in this tracker, do not hesitate to send us a note so we can make the changes.
Many of the transgenic crops listed here are currently being researched, developed and tested in the public sector although often with funding from private companies and foundations through public-private consortia.
The list is not exhaustive as we focused on major food and export crops whose production and trade, in our analyses, poses serious implications to small farmers. Baseline information in this tracker were compiled and compared from various sources including articles, studies, briefs, news alerts found in the websites of IRRI, ISAAA, Cornell University – ABSP II, Monsanto, Syngenta, Genetic ID, Nature Biotechnology, checkbiotech.org, GM Watch, SeedQuest, FAO-BioDeC, Searca-BIC.
The link to the GM Tracker is given below. Since the tracker will be periodically updated, please visit: http://www.grain.org/gmtracker/ for the latest information.