Peru researchers urge let-up in GMO moratorium

The Peruvian Ministry of Agriculture's national institute of agricultural innovation, the INIA, has recommended a softening of the policy on the presence of genetically modified organisms in produce, national media report. It calls for a 2% threshold in the adventitious presence to be permitted on imported produce “in order to avoid a supply deficit” in the country. Peru issued a ten-year moratorium on the import and production of GMOs in 2012. The INIA notes in a letter to the Ministry of Agriculture dated March of this year that the adoption of its proposal would mostly affect the supply of “hard yellow” maize with added warnings of falling production in Peru due to a lack of seed, business newswire El Eomercio reports. The recent appointment of Dr Luis de Stefano as director of the INIA had led to expectations of a policy reversal on GM crops. Dr de Stefano is an advocate of their use.