permaculture

[Mikal Jakubal <mjakubal@asis.com>]

Hi, 
Thought I'd forward this...just in case anyone was having too nice a day.
Ghastly, ghastly, ghastly!


<< May 2000
ALARM OVER U.S. FUNGUS EXPERIMENTS ABROAD
US experiments in Southern countries using microbial fungus to 
eradicate narcotic crops have raised great concern over the 
effects on human health, the environment and legitimate crops. 
This microbial fungus use is prohibited in the United States 
itself.
By Chakravarthi Raghavan 
Third World Network Features
Geneva: An international non-profit group has called on 
the Conference of Parties (COP) to the UN Convention on 
Biodiversity (CBD), meeting in Nairobi on 15-26 May, to act to 
halt experiments abroad by the United States to use 'Agent 
Green' microbes to kill narcotic crops.
In a briefing paper for delegates to the 5th COP meeting, 
the 'Sunshine Project', a non-profit group based in Seattle 
and Hamburg, has complained that the US government was 
planning the testing and widespread application of microbial 
fungus to attack plants producing coca, opium poppy and 
cannabis (marijuana).
This microbial fungus use, the group notes, is prohibited 
in the United States itself, while the UN General Assembly in 
1998 had specifically turned down proposals for the use of 
pathogens to kill narcotic crops.
The microbial pathogens, the Sunshine Project says, pose 
risks to human health and to biodiversity, and their use is 
being promoted abroad - in Asia and the Amazon regions - by 
the United States as part of its war against narcotics. The 
pathogens have been tested only for their effectiveness 
against 'weeds', and not for safety for human health and the 
environment.
The NGO group says that the US has begun conducting test 
programmes on fungi (Pleospora sp. and others) to kill opium 
poppy and marijuana. In the Andes and western Amazon, the US 
is planning testing and widespread application of a fungus 
that attacks coca - Fusarium oxysporum, f. sp. Exythoroxilum.
These pathogens threaten human health and biodiversity in 
the Americas and Asia.
The US Congress, the briefing document says, has recently 
appropriated $23 million for development of the pathogen 
agents and, in the Americas, is linking the fungal pathogen 
plan to the US aid programmes.
These anti-crop fungus programmes have been labelled as 
'bio-control' research to eliminate weeds, the NGO says.
'While plants producing narcotics are certainly 
undesirable, they are not "weeds" by any logical policy or
regulatory definition. And "bio-control" is a misnomer for
these pathogens. Legitimate bio-controls protect cultivated 
crops, but the US pathogens kill them.'
And by appropriating the language of a legitimate branch 
of science, biological controls, the US programme has put the 
reputation of a growing and promising field of research at 
risk.
The briefing document points out that in 1989, an expert 
group working on law enforcement and drug control issues for 
the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs first suggested the use of 
biological agents to kill narcotic crops. Though nothing came 
of this, the US unilaterally pursued scientific development of 
the idea, with limited bilateral cooperation particularly from 
former Soviet research institutions in newly independent 
Central Asian states.
In 1997, at US prodding, the Vienna-based UN Drug Control 
Programme (UNDCP) acted on the 1989 recommendation of experts 
and incorporated it into a global plan for eradication of 
illicit crops, SCOPE (Strategy for Coca and Opium Poppy 
Elimination).
But the UN General Assembly in 1998 rejected the SCOPE 
move, and the idea of using narcotic crop pathogens was 
eliminated from the multilateral agenda. But the US, and some 
in the UNDCP, 'seem to have clung to the idea and are on the 
verge of implementing it', says the Sunshine Project.
But since the US unilateral push for the use of these 
pathogens risks political exposure, the US Government has been 
pushing others to follow its lead. In a 1999 State Department 
cable (obtained under the Freedom of Information Act), the US 
Secretary of State has exhorted the UNDCP 'to find more 
support for fungal eradication, and to solicit funds from 
other governments, in order to avoid the perception that this 
is solely a US Government initiative'.
But there has been little support from other countries, 
the Sunshine Project notes. While the UK provided some small 
supplemental funding for US-sponsored experiments with opium 
poppy fungus in Central Asia in the mid-1990s, no other donor 
country has responded to the US calls for support.
The NGO briefing paper notes that with the exception of 
manual and mechanical plant removal, crop eradication 
programmes using chemical herbicides have been controversial. 
As early as 1988, the UN ECOSOC pointed out that drug 
eradication programmes should not use methods harming the 
environment or humans.
Some countries like Bolivia, Peru and Thailand have laws 
or implemented policies banning chemical eradication because 
of the negative impacts of herbicides on the environment, 
human health and legitimate crops. Civil society opposition to 
such eradication has been intense.
Applied in massive quantities from the air, such chemical 
herbicides as glyphosate (RoundUp), tebuthiuron (Spike) and 
hexaninone harm humans and biodiversity.
But the US and the UNDCP maintain that herbicides used in 
specified ways are 'environmentally safe and non-toxic for 
humans'.
But the US finds even these herbicides not strong enough, 
and is promoting fungal eradication to create plant sprays 
more lethal and long-lasting than glyphosate.
Recently, Peru passed a law banning the use of biological 
agents in coca eradication. The UNDCP admitted in January this 
year that Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan have refused to carry 
out field-testing of opium poppy myoherbicide. And in a report 
for the Colombian Ombudsman for the Environment, leading 
Colombian scientists have said the use of such agents in 
Colombia represents 'a great danger both for humans as well as 
the Colombian environment and biodiversity'.
The Sunshine Project notes that the use of fungal 
narcotic control has been halted in Florida, the world's top 
producer of cannabis. A private company, Ag/Bio Con, which is 
connected to the United States Department of Agriculture, 
proposed using a cannabis-killing strain of Fusarium oxysporum 
in Florida.
But the head of the Florida department of environment 
protection squashed the idea, saying this species was capable 
of evolving rapidly, and its mutagenicity is by far the most 
disturbing factor in its use as a bio-herbicide - it's 
impossible to control the spread of the Fusarium species.
The mutated fungi, it was noted, could cause disease in a 
large number of crops - tomatoes, peppers, flowers, corn and 
vines - and is normally considered a threat to farmers as a 
pest, and not as a pesticide. The Fusarium species is more 
active in warm soils and can stay resident in the soil for 
years. This longevity and enhanced activity in Florida weather 
conditions could lead to an increased risk of mutagenicity.
Despite this assessment, the Sunshine Project charges 
that the US is pressing the programme to the point when it is 
close to large releases. Field-tests are being conducted in 
Central Asia and there is enormous pressure on Colombia to 
sign an agreement for testing of the coca-killing fungus F. 
oxysporum.
The potential target acreage is in excess of one million 
hectares, and the US envisions its wide use in Asia and Latin 
America.
The US claims that the pathogens are environmentally 
safe, are host-specific and don't present any danger to 
humans. But these claims are dubious, charges the Sunhine 
Project.
Biodiversity concerns include the impact of altering 
fungi populations on highly fragile ecosystems, the impact on 
non-target plant species, on soil ecology and pollinators, 
difficulties of control or withdrawal once released, toxicity 
problems, lack of clarity about the fungi's 'natural 
occurrence' and origin, and the possibility of future 
introduction of living modified organism pathogens.
The US pathogen-testing has been done primarily to assess 
their effectiveness in killing plants, not for their 
environmental or human safety, nor have the pathogens been 
proved to be safe to other species. Testing for host 
specificity has been very narrow, and has not included close 
relatives of target species.
Testing has also disregarded complex and fragile 
ecosystems in much of South and South-East Asia and the Andes 
and Amazon basins. And in some US testing, the 'host-specific' 
fungi have attacked both related and non-related species.
The NGO paper also says that the Agrias (Agrias Claudina) 
butterfly, which depends on coca's wild relatives in the 
Amazonian rainforests, would be endangered.
The Nairobi meeting of the COP, the NGO briefing paper 
suggests, should declare that the development of any pathogen 
to deliberately kill any cultivated crop is contrary to the 
objectives of the CBD. It should also assess potential impacts 
of narcotic plant pathogens on agriculture.
The COP should also convey to the UN Commission on 
Narcotic Drugs prior to its March 2001 session the concerns of 
the COP over such international eradication programmes for 
their effects on biological diversity and rights of indigenous 
peoples and local communities. - Third World Network Features
-ends-
About the writer: Chakravarthi Raghavan is Chief Editor of 
SUNS (South-North Development Monitor), a daily bulletin, and 
Third World Network's representative in Geneva.
When reproducing this feature, please credit Third World 
Network Features and (if applicable) the cooperating magazine 
or agency involved in the article, and give the byline. Please 
send us cuttings.
Third World Network is also accessible on the World Wide Web. 
Please visit our web site at
http://www.twnside.org.sg