Associated Press
October 17, 2001
By Reed Lindsay

Campesino organizations from Chihuahua to Chiapas on Tuesday called on President Vicente Fox's administration to block genetically modified (GM) corn allegedly being imported from the United States.

Referring to World Food Day as "World Food Sovereignty Day," activists said the government should impose the same import restrictions utilized by Japan, South Korea and the European Union to protect the genetic diversity of corn in Mexico.

"While other countries supervise and enforce the importation of food, Mexico throws its doors wide open," said Victor Suarez of the National Association of Commercial Businesses (ANEC) at a Mexico City news conference.

Suarez claimed 1.2 million of the 6 million tons of corn annually imported from the United States is genetically engineered.

Last month, the government revealed GM corn had been found growing in the state of Oaxaca. The United States has been targeted as the most likely source of the genetically altered grains.

The Fox administration still has not announced how it will respond to the discovery.

While Mexico has placed a moratorium on the cultivation of GM corn, imports of the grain go unchecked by border authorities.

The vast majority of corn imported from the United States is destined for livestock consumption.

But campesinos who have spent years experimenting with new seeds have no way of distinguishing a GM grain of corn from a conventional one.

Miguel Colunga, of the Chihuahua Democratic Campesino Front (FDCCH), said he was concerned by the unpredictable health and environmental effects of genetically engineered agricultural products.

But he is more immediately worried the introduction of GM corn would deepen the growing dependence of small-scale farmers on the world seed market, which has come to be dominated by a handful of companies.

While 20 years ago, not a single seed company held 1 percent of market share, currently the top 10 seed firms control 30 percent of the 24.4 billion dollar commercial seed market, according to Rural Advancement Foundation International (RAFI).

In the GM seed market, the concentration of corporate control is staggering.

Monsanto Company-now a part of Pharmacia Corporation-alone accounted for 94 percent of the total area sown to GM crops in 2000, said RAFI spokeswoman Silvia Ribeiro.

Yet the dangers of dependency on GM seeds go beyond monopolistic control of the market, said Ribeiro.

Monsanto's genetically engineered seeds-Roundup Ready soybeans, corn, cotton and canola-carry a gene resistant to the Roundup herbicide, also sold by Monsanto.

"The most important consideration is to create dependence," said Ribeiro. "What they want to do is sell more chemicals."