October 30, 2009

As scientists race to increase food production worldwide, new trials to plant genetically-modified corn have stoked anger in Mexico, where the food originated.

 

Some fear Mexico could one day lose the wealth of native varieties it still produces, including red and blue, to a few tough breeds of GM corn. Hundreds of thousands of subsistence farmers could also be affected.

 

The government this month granted its first 22 permits to agribusinesses Monsanto Co., Dow AgroSciences and Pioneer to carry out tests on GM corn on farms in northern and western Mexico.

 

Mexico is the top producer of white corn, which is used to make its famous flat tortillas, but it imports increasing amounts of yellow corn from the US, mostly for cattle feed.

 

The tests are part of efforts to help the country return to corn self-sufficiency and keep food prices down.

 

The price of corn, often also called maize, has more than doubled since 2007, which prompted tens of thousands to protest the price of tortillas in Mexico last year.

 

"No country should be dependent for its food from other countries," said Ariel Alvarez Morales, head of the Bi-Secretarial Commission on Biosecurity of Genetically-Modified Organisms.

 

"We can take advantage of this biodiversity we have in maize, and part of that can also be through this (GM) technology," Morales said.

 

The US, China and India are among countries that already grow GM crops, while six European countries have banned them.

 

GM crops, also including soy and cotton, are highly controversial, with critics underlining potential risks to health and the environment.

 

Greenpeace has led efforts to protect Mexico's corn after GM traces have turned up in samples of native varieties in the past decade, despite a moratorium on planting GM corn.

 

The new test permits cover more than 10 hectares in northern borderstates and the western top corn-producer of Sinaloa, and the government has pledged to prevent them from contaminating native varieties.

 

However, environmental group Greenpeace claims they risk polluting 31 of more than 50 native seeds, and is filing court motions to withdraw the permits.

 

"The final goal is not to experiment. It's to open the door for these kind of crops, which only benefit the companies, not the producers nor Mexican consumers," Greenpeace campaigner Aleira Lara said.

 

The government should spend more money helping small farmers and protecting native corn, Lara said.

 

Of the country's 1.9 million corn farmers, some 85 percent have less than five hectares of land, according to government figures.

 

As the GM debate rages on, much of Mexico's treasured corn diversity is for now protected in a giant seed bank in central Mexico, which keeps grains of different colours and sizes at freezing temperatures, holding 27,000 samples from across the Americas.

 

"It's a repository of potentially useful genes for future breeding and response to problems...for example in response to climate change," said corn expert Kevin Pixley, at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre, or CIMMYT, in Texcoco, where the bank is located.

 

Scientists also crossbreed grains and advise on more efficient farming techniques to help them survive challenges, such as this summer's severe drought.

 

They say that, in the current climate, Mexican farmers need all the help they can get.

 

"If conserving diversity in the field actually conserves poverty of the farmers by having them grow varieties that are far inferior to those that are available, then I think it's debatable issue," Pixley said.