POLAND AG BIOTECHNOLOGY PROGRESS

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 WARSAW 001114 SENSITIVE SIPDIS STATE PASS ELECTRONICALLY TO USTR JMURPHY, MCLARKSON STATE FOR EUR/CE STATE FOR EEB/TPP/ABT/BTT FINN USDA FOR FAS/OSTA MHENNEY, LJONES; FAS/OFSO DYOUNG USDA FOR FAS/OCRA/RCURTIS, DSEIDBAND BRUSSELS PASS AG MINISTER COUNSELOR; EUROPEAN POSTS FOR AGR/ECON SENSITIVE E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: EAGR ECON ETRD TBIO PGOV PL SUBJECT: POLAND AG BIOTECHNOLOGY PROGRESS REF: Krakow 095 WARSAW 00001114 001.2 OF 002 ¶1. (SBU) Summary: Polish debate on biotechnology is heating up, with nudging from the Embassy. From April to September, an industry coalition supporting biotech has coalesced, and we are starting to see local leaders following their constituents in countering negative propaganda and demanding access to the biotechnologies Polish farmers need to be competitive. Nevertheless, biotech opponents still have the upper hand, and the support of the Ministry of Environment. The next big test will be a virulently anti-biotech bill proposed by the Ministry that the Sejm will consider this fall. Nevertheless, the characteristic Polish resolve to push ahead despite obstacles means today the pro-GM movement finally has legs to walk on. End summary. ¶2. (U) Embassy officers have conducted demarches, worked with the press, connected idea salesmen, and offered analysis. Primarily supported by USDA's Emerging Markets Program, but with some input from State's Biotech Outreach Funds the mission in Warsaw has hosted a farmer from Spain, Jose Luis Romeo (May 2008); farmers from Iowa, Varel Bailey and Jill Euken (June 2008),Czech Farmer Vitezslav Navratil (Sept 2008),representatives of the American Soybean Association, (Oct. 2007, Feb 2008, and Sept 2008); and held seminars with regional leaders in Poznan, Opole, and nearby Warsaw for crowds of up to 200. Ag Counselor drove 5000 miles meeting regional political officials, academics, media, local associations, and producers. ¶3. (U) Embassy Public Affairs, USDA Warsaw, and Consulate Krakow currently are arranging to host author and Professor Alan McHughen of the University of California, Riverside, in Wroclaw and Warsaw in October. Dr. McHughen's book, Pandora's Food Basket, has been translated in Polish with an altered title, Genetically Modified Foods: What Consumers Need to Know. Emboffs are excited about the visit, as Dr. McHughen is credible with his willingness to accept and discuss some technology downsides. McHughen's description of the positive attributes of biotechnology outweigh his depiction of the negatives. ¶4. (U) In traveling Poland it is clear that the Embassy is stepping in where the Government of Poland is offering negative, biased, and sometimes anti-American statements on the technology, primarily from the Ministry of Environment. The Ministry's Center for Environmental Information financed a publication from Professor Stanislaw Wiackowski, labeling USDA, FDA, and EPA "indolent" and the President of the United States corrupt. It was a 50 page screed claiming biotechnology causes hunger in India and cancer in rats. Embassy complaints about lack of balance to the Ministry have not elicited a response. More damaging, the Ministry has conducted six seminars across Poland, over the same time frame of embassy activities, that specified biotechnology negatives. Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, and Dr. Wiackowski were all speakers. These seminars were financed with public Polish and EU funds. ¶5. (U) The Ministry of Environment has drafted a GM cultivation law that represents a farce. The draft law, at 145 pages, contacts report is the longest draft law written in Polish history. The law envisions that individual regions may declare themselves GM free. If a farmer then plants GM they face jail time. Even if a regional legislature votes to plant GM, they can be overruled by the local provincial governor (wojewod),representing the national government. Before planting, the law requires producers to seek permission from neighbors, post bonds for damages, and conduct exhaustive recordkeeping. Though the law was 145 pages, it did not include provisions for insect refuges or barriers from organic crops. The draft states that regulatory issues like these will be issued by the Environment Ministry later. The administrative risk is so high, that producers say they will not plant under this law. ¶6. (U) Each law in Poland must be accompanied by a justification for its passage. The justification of the cultivation law plainly states the law is designed to prevent GM crops from being planted. The Ministry received negative comments from producers, many accompanied by detailed analysis about how the law conflicts with EU mandates. Scientists were outraged at the provisions of the law regulating their activities. Presently, the Ministry of Environment does not approve animal feed tests and open field crop trials, despite the scientific panels at the Ministry that support these requests. The draft imagines an even stricter regime. Worrisome WARSAW 00001114 002.2 OF 002 for the future, the draft includes provisions that are interpreted by some contacts to mean animal clones will be considered genetically modified, and thus under the regulation of the Ministry of Environment. With its comment period over, the Ministry announced it will be working on sending the draft to Parliament on September 28. It will need the support of the Ministries of Agriculture and Economy. Those ministries are more positive on the technology, but their views are unlikely to overcome the strong negative views put forward by the environmental movement. ¶7. (U) There is reason for optimism. A pro biotech coalition is active. In partnership with the seed industry, a Coalition for Modern Farming is pushing local governments to do more to educate and defend them. Biotechnology is at the core of the survivability of Polish agriculture. The nation has a disastrous outbreak of the European Corn Borer, which destroys $400 million worth of the corn crop annually, losses that could easily be prevented by Mon 810 Bt corn, available for sale. Polish producers have planted 3,000 hectares, and some trade rumors indicate the figure may be as high at 5,000 hectares with Bt corn, bought in neighboring Czech Republic. Producers realize they must cut costs and worry about predictions of rising input prices and falling commodity prices. They worry as well about the new paradigm in the Polish farm economy: it has become a net pork importer and its domestic hog population is at a 23 year low. Poland is an inefficient producer of pork, and has open borders with more efficient vertically-integrated Western European suppliers. ¶8. (SBU) The Embassy and USDA are stepping in to provide better biotechnology information and contacts to regional leaders who are willing to work for cultivation and acceptance of U.S. varieties in animal feeds. Last week, Ag Counselor traveled to Opole with Polish scientists and producers from the Mazowiecki region near Warsaw. Opole dedicated its annual Corn Day exhibition to a conference promoting biotechnology. Then, after the formal conference concluded, the region's agricultural leaders and elected regional leaders retired with experts to the office of the agricultural extension service leader to hear the presentations again and debate them. The Mazowiecki region agricultural chamber passed a resolution promoting biotechnology in July, after the visit of Ag Counselor and Iowa speakers in June. Mazowiecki-Opole regions are in an alliance for biotech and Opole leaders may follow with their own pro-biotech position shortly. -------------- OPOLE IS THE KEY -------------- ¶9. (SBU) The Polish characteristic of personal opposition in tough circumstances helps. Poles are fiercely independent and stand up for their beliefs. This has so far benefitted the anti-GM movement, but facing farm losses, competition from crops abroad, and the hypocrisy of how Polish consumers eat GM crops produced elsewhere, producers and scientists are working together for biotechnology. Accompanying Ag Counselor to Opole was Dr. Lucjan Szponar, former head of the Polish Nutrition Institute, now retired; Dr. Roman Warzecha, of the Ag Ministry's Plant Breeding Station near Warsaw, and Tadeusz Szymanczak, former parliamentarian and corn farmer. Met in Opole by a Czech farmer, Vitezslav Navratil, the speakers had an open forum to present their views. Mr. Navratil's participation was organized by USDA Embassy Prague Ag Specialist. Local TV and print press, including with Ag Counselor, was overwhelmingly positive. Important for the future, Opole is the home region of Sejm Agricultural Committee chief, Leszek Korzionowski. A corn bioethanol plant will move into production in April 2009 in Opole, stoking demand for corn. The plant will eat 350,000 tons of corn, while Poland produces just 1.7 million tons now and will import. Recovering crop losses from the corn borer would provide needed feedstock for the plant. ¶10. (SBU) Embassy's Polish biotechnology experts have been invited to speak again at a farm group convention near Krakow in October, with help from Consulate Krakow. Malopolski has fresh interest in the technology, see reftel. ASHE