Note: As the article below demonstrates, Brazil is another country that is rapidly moving ahead with plans to legalize the commercial use of genetically engineered eucalyptus. ArborGen, the GE trees company headquartered in South Carolina in the US, also has operations in Brazil and is quoted in the piece below.
But regardless of whether or not the eucalyptus are engineered, the growing reliance on eucalyptus as a supposedly “renewable and green” source for energy or other products is going to mean the ongoing expansion of non-native eucalyptus plantations and all of the problems that are associated with them–including loss of native forests, depletion of groundwater and soils, and displacement of Indigenous and peasant communities.
Barbara Wells, the CEO for ArborGen, is very familiar with pushing dangerous GMOs in Brazil. Before joining ArborGen, Wells spent 18 years at Monsanto where she was co-managing director of Monsanto Brazil and leader of the Roundup Ready soybean team. Roundup Ready GMO soy has been an ecological and social disaster in Brazil and around Latin America.
For more info on the dangers of eucalyptus, visit the World Rainforest Movement’s website as well as https://nogetrees.org
–Global Justice Ecology Project
P.S. For info on a new deal between Dow and The Nature Conservancy to help Dow “value and incorporate nature into its business goals, decisions and strategies,” (I know, yuck) visit our blog post on the topic.
By Lisa Gibson | January 25, 2011 Source: Biomass Magazine
Dow will begin to use eucalyptus in Brazil, as the country continues to make meaningful use of the tree in its bioenergy sector.
