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Southern Mexico is the cradle of maize, and a hot spot of bio-diversity. But is that heritage now being threatened by inadvertent planting of genetically modified maize? Nick Caistor reports on the fall-out of the surprise discovery of GM maize 60 miles from the nearest GM plantation.
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Amado Ramirez has had a great business idea. He lives in Oaxaca, where Mexicans have grown maize for thousands of years.
The potential of maize
People here in Oaxaca, in the rest of Mexico, and increasingly in the southern USA, eat tortillas, round maize pancakes, with every meal.
Maize is more than a food in Mexico - it is a way of life
Amado Ramirez
"Maize is more than a food in Mexico, it's a way of life," Amado says in his spruce new tortilla shop Itanoni in Oaxaca city. "So I thought, why not make it a gourmet product, putting as much care and attention into making tortillas as chefs do into other delicacies."
To make his tortillas as authentic as possible, Amado has his own suppliers of maize grown on the mountainous slopes that surround the city. Then he grinds it and bakes it under strict supervision in his shop.
But now his business is facing disaster.
Discovering the GM link
Just as Amado is setting up his new shop, genetically modified ears of maize have been found in those same mountains he is hoping to use for his "pure" product.
Dr Chapela discovered the GM threat to maize in Oaxaca
The scientist who made the discovery is Ignacio Chapela. Originally from Mexico City, like many thousands of other Mexicans Dr Chapela has made a life for himself in the north, and is now a professor at the University of Berkeley in California.
He has been working with the campesinos or peasant farmers in the mountains of Oaxaca for more than 15 years. He has been helping them develop their communally held forests, and the small plots of land where they grow their maize and other crops to eat.
We had been planning to tell the farmers about a future threat - but found ourselves with a crisis situation already
Dr Chapela
"It was late in 2000," Dr Chapela explains.
"I had planned to do a workshop in the Sierra de Juarez about GM crops. My assistant brought some GM maize from California, with the idea of contrasting it with the un-modified 'landraces' grown in Oaxaca."
"But he phoned me in California at about six in the morning, very excited. He had discovered that in the ears of maize grown in Oaxaca, more than 75 per cent had transgenic material. We had been planning to tell the farmers about a future threat, but found ourselves with a crisis situation already."
Publishing the results
Dr Chapela published his findings in Nature, the highly-respected worldwide scientific magazine in November 2001.
Maize - at the centre of this GM controversy
He claimed the maize found in Oaxaca contained the transgenic material p-35S, and genes from an insecticide bacterium to kill pests that are common in the US, but completely alien to the Mexican situation.
Since then, his results have been the source of dispute and controversy.
Controversy reigns
The first element of this controversy is how the GM maize got there. Since 1998, the Mexican government has banned the planting of GM maize, though, crucially, not the import of it. The country imports about two million tons of GM maize from the US each year. This is supposed to be eaten, not planted.
Olga is afraid her children will get cancer from eating maize
But this ban is impossible to police. When I visited the Sierra de Juarez, the local government store was selling ears of maize both for food and for planting. One local farmer, Olga Toro Maldonado, did what many of her neighbours did.
"The ears of maize for sale looked good. I was curious, so I planted a few in my milpa (maizefield). They produced a good crop, so I planted more of them the next year."
It is here the experts disagree with Dr. Chapela's version of the threat from transgenic maize.
Julien Berthaud is a maize expert with the International Centre for the Improvement of Maize and Wheat, based outside Mexico City.
Julien Berthaud needs further research before he believes there is a threat
"First, we have to do more extensive and independent tests to see if Dr. Chapela was right," he says. "But even so, we think that this genetically modified material does not pose a threat, because it performs no function as a pesticide in Mexico, the introduced gene sequence will have no effect, and will probably disappear."
The scientific arguments swirl to and fro. But back at the Itanoni tortilla shop in Oaxaca city, the customers are definitely worried.
Future is threatened
"Yes, I do like this local maize," Maria Dolores tells me. "But there are rumours that it has been contaminated, that it could give you cancer, and I'm not so sure about eating too much of it."
And while his customers see this kind of threat even in his products, Amado Ramirez's dreams of a new Mexican empire based on its most famous staple food could come to nothing.
Preserving the integrity of Indian corn
In southern Mexico, the place where corn was born, this original gift of Indian America is now in danger of extinction. Genetically modified corn imported from the United States is rapidly blending with indigenous corn varieties. It carries high potential for destroying the local strains and threatens to obliterate the central source of food for millions of Indian agriculturalists. The problem lies not only in Mexico. Indian farmers in the United States and organic farmers in Canada have raised the alarm on this serious problem of genetically modified plants contaminating natural varieties of local and regional farming cultures.
The contamination in Mexico appears to be in its beginning stages, but for many people it is an aberration of nature and cause for extreme concern. In the remote mountains of the southern state of Oaxaca, transgenic strains were found in 15 of 22 villages examined. Three to 10 percent of plants were contaminated in the fields tested. Scientists from the University of California at Berkeley last November used DNA testing to confirm that the plants in question were genetically modified.
Local farmers first began to notice the new "wild" corn about three years ago. The new corn, which they assert came in government trucks to be sold at community stores, would grow anywhere, even through cracks on sidewalks. The government has denied bringing in the new corn but locals can tell the difference. They say the modified corn kernels are larger and have a lighter color. The Native varieties are also sweeter.
Although it is illegal since 1998 to cultivate genetically modified corn in Mexico, the source of the contamination appears to be from U.S. exports brought in for human consumption. Some 6 million tons of corn are imported by Mexico each year. Diconsa, the national subsidized food program, distributes corn to some 23,000 stores nationwide. Apparently many people have unwittingly planted the genetically modified corn.
Local activists are demanding that the Mexican government stop imports of the suspect corn. They accuse Diconsa of dispersing the transgenic varieties. Officials at the national program deny it, but activists and farmers can easily identify the modified corn. Furthermore, laboratories at an agricultural research center in La Trinidad (Oaxaca) confirmed that transgenic strains are found in samples of corn sold at the Diconsa stores.
Those who planted the new corn reported good results, at first. For one thing, it yielded two or three ears per plant, compared to one ear by their own strains. It also seemed to spring up anywhere. As the plants matured and ripened, however, they showed themselves susceptible to local plagues. Local strains have been selected over generations to resist plagues and diseases found in the area. The new corn is a weak corn, tampered with for reasons not amenable to cultures that sustain and consume foodstuffs as a fundamental social value.
Corn is a central staple of the diet for Mexican village farmers. Farmers take scrupulous care in safeguarding their seeds (germ plasm), and consider corn to be an actual relative. As the Mexican scholar Arturo Warman has put it: "What the Europeans found in the Americas was not only a plant, it was a cultural invention, the product of the initiative of millions of people for thousands of years that produced a treasury of genetic knowledge." The potential contamination of their principal source of food and culture came as a surprise and has become a serious cause for worry in a region where nearly every house and even many government offices and businesses are flanked by fields of corn.
Even scientists admit they donÕt know the ultimate impacts of transgenics on the environment. It is still an unknown quantity. But certainly, the immediate impact of contamination of natural varieties planted and consumed by millions of indigenous and other small farmers throughout the world portends serious problems for millions of people.
Just last month, organic farmers in Saskatchewan concerned over the same problem have filed suit against the two giant biotechnology conglomerates, Monsanto and Aventis SA, whose genetically modified varieties are contaminating crops in Western Canada. In their case, the complaint concerns genetically modified canola, a crop often staggered with wheat. In the lawsuit filed in January, the organic farmers charge that the genetically modified varieties are invading their fields and denying their right to the "organic" designation that provides them their primary market. The suit has kept Monsanto from commercially releasing genetically modified wheat until a decision is reached by the courts.
This week, two major events touching on the issue take place. In Montreal, hundreds of delegates from the Convention on Biological DiversityÕs 182 parties, other governments, indigenous and local community organizations and various institutions are gathering to explore how indigenous and local communitiesÕ knowledge and practices can help conserve the worldÕs highly threatened species. The use of traditional indigenous knowledge is a focus of discussion in the search for solutions. Most indigenous and local communities are located in areas where the majority of the worldÕs plant genetic resources are found. Conference organizers recognize that the skills and techniques of indigenous peoples, as cultivators who have used biological diversity in a sustainable way for thousands of years, provide valuable information to the global community and are a useful model for biodiversity policies.
Another event, a day of awareness and prayer called "Safeguarding the Sacred" involves concerned agriculturalists from Pueblo communities. They are calling on grain exporters and the U.S. government to protect corn biodiversity and to honor the global treaty on biodiversity (the Bio-safety Protocol signed in Cartagena, Colombia, February 2000) by ending the dumping of U.S. taxpayer subsidized genetically engineered corn in Mexico.
New Mexico writer Robin Seydel points out that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency itself maintains that genetically engineered organisms must not be planted in regions that are home to wild relatives, where the results of genetic contamination could be disastrous. "With over 60 wild relatives of corn, including what is believed to be cornÕs ancient ancestor, the wild grass, teosinte, growing throughout Mexico, genetic contamination of these ancestor species could affect corn farmers and backyard gardeners here in New Mexico and nationwide." The indigenous Mexican corn varieties go back at least ten thousand years.
Last year, under NAFTA, Mexico imported 6 million tons of corn from the U.S., a quarter of which is genetically engineered. This corn is grown for human and animal consumption in government stores throughout the region. It is now widely believed that when people ran short of their locally produced seed, they planted it, unknowingly violating their governmentÕs ban on genetically modified cultivation. Public outrage and international alarm has been such that the Mexican Congress, which had not yet banned the importation of genetically engineered corn for human consumption, has now called for a ban on the import of genetically modified corn.
This is a most serious problem. As with so many issues raised by globalization, it affects local, land-based and indigenous populations. The growing infection of natural and organic varieties easily becomes a source of outrage and hostility. The wanton impact on peoplesÕ foods and, as importantly, on the central, living source of their spiritual traditions, is not easily forgotten or forgiven.
Says Clayton Brascoupé, program director for the Traditional Native American Farmers Association (Tesuque, N.M.): "Generally Indian and Hispanic communities grow open pollinated varieties of corn. What I can see happening is our landrace varieties becoming contaminated by this genetic pollution. The contamination will sever a major tie with our culture. For us corn is not just food, it is "medicine." If it becomes contaminated it would make the practice of our religious beliefs very difficult. It might even make it impossible."
source: http://www.indiancountry.com/?1013187134
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- Genetic engineering of sacred foods and medicines presents unnecessary risks for Native communities and must stopped, said organizers of a recent event held to inform consumers about the dangers of genetically engineered foods. Speaking at a press conference at La Montanita Co-op, a local health food store, Clayton Brascoupe, director of the Traditional Native American Farmers Association, said, "Very few Native people know about genetically modified foods and how they might affect our people. WeÕre eating these foods in our schools, restaurants and hospitals and we donÕt even know it. We need to demand labeling on these GE foods so that consumers have a choice if they want to eat them or not."
Genetic engineering (GE) allows scientists to break the natural boundaries that exist between species to produce new life forms that will produce a variety of desired traits. For example, genes from salmon can be spliced into tomatoes to make them more resistant to cold weather, thereby yielding a larger crop. The process can manipulate genes from animals, plants bacteria, viruses and even humans.
But when species are crossed and new life forms are introduced, what impact will they have on the natural world in the long-term? Critics say scientists are playing God by creating life forms that donÕt occur in nature and they point to profits as the driving force behind plans by corporations and big agri-business to introduce yet more GE foods into the food supply. The most popular GE crops in the U.S. are corn, cotton, canola and soybeans. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 68 percent of all soybeans and 26 percent of all corn is genetically engineered in the U.S. Other crops include tomatoes, potatoes, rice, cantaloupe, sugar beets, squash and papaya.
There are already some 50 million acres of genetically engineered crops growing in the United States, including farmlands near Indian country in North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska, Arizona and New Mexico. While many traditional Indian and organic farmers choose not to plant GE seeds, they are now learning that drift pollution may contaminate their crops when the wind, and insects carry pollen from GE plants to their natural crops.
"When I first heard about the corruption of the genes of our Corn Mother, it frightened me because corn is at the heart of our survival as Indigenous peoples of North, South and Central America, said Brascoupe, a member of the Mohawk Nation and Tesuque Pueblo.
"Corn is our Mother. She nourishes us and takes care of us. Our Creator gave it to us as a gift and instructed us on how to care for the corn so that it will care for us. It is our first medicine, and our people and corn are one in the same. Our mother is being corrupted by scientists and corporations, and if we donÕt stop it, she wonÕt have the ability to heal us any longer."
Corn is a central part of the origin stories of many tribes including the Navajo, Apache, Hopi, Zuni, Acoma, Laguna and Isleta Pueblos. The Navajo and Apache peoples have long used the pollen from corn in their daily prayers and in puberty and marriage ceremonies. For Pueblo tribes, corn is a symbol of life, and it carries a culturally embedded sense of caring for all life. Brascoupe was one of several speakers who warned consumers that genetically engineered seeds and crops have not been fully tested for safety and in the long-term will have unforeseen impacts on human health and the natural world.
He and others worried about the contamination of Indigenous corn varieties by genetically engineered seeds. In addition to wind pollution, seeds travel and change hands as Native people from the North travel to indigenous communities in the South, he said. The Organic Consumers Association warns consumers that hazards of GE crops include food allergies, antibiotic resistance, increased pesticide residues, increased cancer risks and damage to soil fertility. They also charge that GE crops that produce their own pesticides present another dangerous problem -- the creation of "superweeds" and "superpests."
Joran Viers, director of the New Mexico Organic Commodities Commission, said, "The most direct effect on growers is the potential for an ever- widening pool of genetic contamination. It raises many issues about control and regulation. As the head of a state regulatory agency this is a concern. Our organic farmers now have to test to ensure that their crops are not contaminated." Viers said they see this science "as unnecessary," noting that other methods for improving crops can be used that are less controversial, less unknown, and less subject to hazardous fallout.
"GE crops are grown for the benefit of corporations, not for the benefit of farmers or consumers," he said. "We demand that in this country labeling of GE foods has to happen. Eighty percent of people polled want to know -- we have a right to know about what we eat." Mexico banned the import of genetically modified seed in 1998 and the Mexican Congress passed a resolution against genetically engineered corn in December. But last year, under NAFTA agreements, the U.S. shipped 6 million tons of corn to Mexico, a quarter of which is genetically engineered.
Activists and indigenous peoples in rural communities say they are alarmed by the spread of GE corn among their natural crops and complained that there was no labeling of GE corn. Likewise, at the international level, Europe, Japan, Latin America and several Asian countries have rejected GE products. Consumer resistance in the U.S. is growing, but has not reached major proportions. However, recent surveys revealed some 80 percent of U.S. consumers want GE foods labeled.
Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, has championed the effort to label GE foods in Congress without much success. Since 2000, he has introduced three bills relating to genetically engineered food regulations and all but one has failed. His amendment to the Farm Security Act of 2001 to safeguard against the unknown impacts of GE foods triples the research on the negative impacts of GE crops.
In Indian country, Navajo Agricultural Products Industries, an enterprise of the Navajo Nation, planted a 10-acre test crop four years ago, but ultimately discontinued it because of consumer demands. "We planted a test crop on about 10 acres just to see how it would do, but we found out our buyers did not want genetically modified products, " said Albert Etsitty, corn crop manager. "Consumers were not educated about it and we let it go." Brascoupe said they will continue efforts to educate Native consumers about the dangers of GE crops, especially corn.
"GE corn is not made by the Creator and may have negative forces in its pollen because it was produced with toxins in it and it was produced for profit. We have to think about this issue very carefully and get our communities informed. We must be conscious of what these crops are doing to our Mother Corn."
source: http://www.indiancountry.com/?1015598696
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