MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Brazil legalizes GM seeds.

In a triumph for United States based biotechnology firm Monsanto Co., Brazil's lower house of Congress endorsed the creation of a framework to legalize biotech seed sales in Latin America's largest country.

The move, hotly protested by environmentalists, was approved Wednesday and clears the way for rules that would allow Monsanto to sell genetically modified soybean seeds in Brazil the world's second exporter.

The modified seeds were banned in Brazil but the use of cloned or smuggled versions of the company's popular Roundup Ready seeds has been widespread among Brazilian farmers seeking to cut production costs. Monsanto has complained for years that it was being robbed of profits.

The bill ? passed by a vote of 352-60 ? has already been approved by Brazil's Senate and is expected to be signed into law by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. He has twice approved temporary decrees approving the harvesting of modified soybean even though the crops were technically illegal.

Greenpeace which issued a statement calling on Brazilians to fight ??against the corporate strategy of dominating food production'' said it would lobby President Lula da Silva to veto the bill. It claims the commission that would approve GM seeds in Brazil is stacked with a small group of science and technology experts inclined to sanction the seeds and lacks representation from government officials with environmental expertise.

Brazil, United States main soybean competitor, has the potential to become the world's largest soybean producer because of cheap land, low labour costs and plentiful water.

International demand for soybean has skyrocketed in recent years, driven by ever-increasing purchases by China

Monsanto's soybean seed is engineered to withstand the spraying of herbicides, which saves farmers money by cutting down on the number of workers and weed killers they need. Brazil's ban on such crops was rarely enforced and did little to stop farmers.

Experts estimate about 30% of Brazil's soybean is grown with genetically engineered seeds, but the figure is near 90% in Brazil's southernmost state, where the seeds were first introduced in the 1990s after being smuggled in from neighbouring countries.