Brazil’s announcement that it will circumvent a judicial ban on the commercial planting of genetically modified soy made clear that after much internal debate, the nine-month-old, left-of-center administration of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has decided to open this country’s fast-growing farm sector to transgenics. But the controversial move faces court challenges, and—at least in the short term—intensifies rather than extinguishes the long-running struggle over whether Brazil should allow commercial cultivation of gene-altered crops. The decision became official Sept. 25, when the government issued MP 131. The decree allows farmers to use transgenic seeds for the 2003-4 soy crop, which is being planted this month. In doing so, it effectively extends a similar measure (MP... [Log in to read more]