Brazil may destroy GMO cotton fields

Brazil may destroy 16,000 hectares of genetically modified cotton that has not been granted commercial clearance in Brazil, an agriculture ministry technician said.
In Brazil's Official Federal Register on Monday, the national biosafety regulator CTNBio recommended that the GMO cotton fields be destroyed. The recommendation was a response to the ministry's request on how to keep the GMO cotton from contaminating surrounding fields.
The 39,500 acres of illegal fields planted with Monsanto's Roundup Ready cotton, which is tolerant of a glyphosate herbicide, turned up in the states of Minas Gerais, Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul, Bahia and Goias, according to the ministry's biosafety division.
"Various producers have been processed, but they have a right to defence," said Juliana Ribeiro, a technical spokeswoman on biosafety for the ministry.