Azernews.Az

By Nigar Orujova, AzerNews Staff Writer

Although Azerbaijan has joined a number of world environmental conventions, such as the Convention on Biological Diversity (1992) and the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (2000), genetically modified organisms (GMO) are widely spread in the country, Eyyub Huseynov, head of the Azerbaijani Free Consumers Union, told AzerNews.

"Around 95 percent of tomatoes, 95 percent of watermelons and 40 percent of potatoes are genetically modified in Azerbaijan," Huseynov said.

This terrifying data is a cause for grave concern.

GMOs are one of the current biological threats to the planet, but the danger of genetically modified products (GMP) is underestimated in Azerbaijan. This deplorable fact is due to poor public awareness on the issue.

Azerbaijan still plants and imports genetically modified products, notwithstanding legislation adopted on February 7, 2012, which bans usage of genetically modified plants in Azerbaijan.

However, according to Zeynal Akparov, director of the Genetic Resources Institute, new legislation will be passed soon.

Frightening amounts of GMP

Genetic modification has caused death of many fruits and vegetables in Azerbaijan, including ten sorts of watermelons, Huseynov added.

A GMO is the result of a Genetic Engineering process that involves the extraction or artificially forcing of genes from the DNA of one species into the genes of an unrelated plant or animal. The alien genes may come from bacteria, viruses, insects, animals and even humans.

As a result, the newly produced GMO is stronger than other organisms of that species. There are a number of genetically modified vegetables, which have the genes of animals -- like potatoes and tomatoes -- and human genes are in genetically modified rice, for instance.

GMO potatoes or cabbage with the genes of poisonous snakes and scorpions are more resistant to plant pests than GMO-free vegetables. Moreover, such vegetables can easily withstand pesticides and herbicides, which are used to kill pests and weeds.

About 98 percent of soya beans contain GMOs, said Huseynov, and soya is widely used in food and cosmetic industries.

GMO plants are also used for animal feeding. "GMO is used in broiler chicken feeding," Huseynov said.

Azerbaijani Human Rights Institute director, MP Ayten Mustafayeva, believes GMO in baby food is a real danger for Azerbaijani population. "It can cause irreparable harm," she suggests.

Meanwhile, MP Hadi Rajabli said the number of disabled newborns rose by 37 percent in Azerbaijan in 2011. The MP explained it with different factors, including GMPs consumed in Azerbaijan.

GMP was created to be used in countries facing the possibility of famine and poor land conditions, but Azerbaijan is not among such countries and senses no need for GMP.

The Agriculture Ministry admits the fact that GMPs are imported to the country illegally. The developing agriculture of the country should give a bigger support to organic planting, as Azerbaijan has all the conditions necessary for that.

People have to remember that while saving money on GMPs, we are paying a dual price by killing ourselves.

Back to origin

The interest to genetically modified products increased in the late 1970s, while large-scale commercial sales of GMPs started in 1990. At that time GMPs were believed to be an escape from hunger and diseases in vulnerable parts of the world as they are easy to plant, cheaper, more nutritive and contain medicine and vaccines.

A lot has changed since that time, but GMOs are still widely used and sold around the world. According to the 2011 statistics, global plantings of genetically modified crops rose by 8 percent in 2011, taking the total area of biotech crops in the world to 160 million hectares.

The country with the biggest area of genetically modified crops is the United States (69 million hectares), followed by Brazil (30.3 million hectares) and Argentina (23.7 million hectares).

While the interest in GMPs is still high, scientists around the world are warning people of the GMP alert. According to recent years' figures, the world GMO-mania has slowed down.

The scientific researches on GMOs are still in progress, and most of them are carried out on animals, as it is the fastest way to see the GMO effects, while people's reaction to GMPs may take years to discern.

According to the American Academy of Environmental Medicine, several animal studies indicate serious health risks associated with modified food consumption, including infertility, immune dysregulation, accelerated aging, dysregulation of genes associated with cholesterol synthesis, insulin regulation, cell signaling, protein formation, and changes in the liver, kidney, spleen and gastrointestinal system.

Because of the mounting data, it is biologically plausible for genetically modified foods to cause adverse health effects in humans.

A document adopted at one of the environmental meetings held in 1998 in the United States stated, "When an activity raises threats to the environment or human health, precautionary measures should be taken, even if some cause and effect relationships are not fully established scientifically. In this context, the proponent of an activity, rather than the public, should bear the burden of proof (of the safety of the activity)."

Many countries insist on GMOs being safe for people's health and environment. In others, GMOs are the subject of strong hostility as they produce risks to food safety and quality, health, the environment, biodiversity, the economy, society, geopolitics, etc.

GMO planting barrens lands, as well as destroys organically clean plants. Genetically modified plants do not produce seeds, which makes farmers buy new seeds every year.

Nowadays, 29 countries are engaged in biotechnologies. 19 of them are developing, while ten are developed countries.

European nations and a number of other countries around the world strongly oppose genetically modified organisms being planted or spread at home. For instance, Austria, Greece, Venezuela, Poland and Switzerland have declared themselves GMO-free.

Europe is very strict in GMP monitoring: products have to contain no more than 0.9 percent of GMOs in a number of European countries.

As the GMO was created to save the world's poor countries from hunger, nowadays there is a tendency in Africa to reject GMP consisting humanitarian aid, as they also perceive the threat of genetically modified organisms.

CIS and GMP

The former Soviet Union republics have essentially the same point of view on the GMO problem. However, some of them have more strict laws on using GMOs, while others are still in dire need of drafting such laws.

According to the Azerbaijan Human Rights Institute, such CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) countries as Kazakhstan have more developed and updated laws on the GMO issue, while Turkmenistan has banned planting, import and distribution of GMPs in the country.

Russian, Belarusian and Ukrainian legislation has some restrictions on GMOs, such as certification and the fact that only 16 GMP species are allowed in Russia -- eight types of maize, six types of potato, one type of rice and one sort of sugar beet.

The above-mentioned CIS countries' laws require science-based evidence of a product's quality, safety and comprehensive information to be allowed for sale in the domestic market.

As opposed to them, other CIS countries ignore the issue regarding foods containing GMOs. The turnover of GMO containing foods is free and uncontrolled in those countries.

Clear-cut decisions to adopt or amend laws on GMPs will make a healthy future possible for countries around the globe.