The News Mexico
January 24, 2002
By Reed Lindsay

If the government waits too long before taking measures to contain the spread of genetically modified (GM) corn, the consequences could be catastrophic, said Peter Rosset, co-director of Food First, an Oakland-based research institution dedicated to finding solutions to hunger and poverty.

Speaking at a Wednesday forum on GM corn in Mexico City, Rosset warned cultivating genetically engineered varieties in Mexico, where corn was first domesticated by humans thousands of years ago, could decimate the crop's genetic diversity.

"For years, the scientific community has agreed that genetically engineered seeds should not be sown in centers of diversity of the principal crops, in order to avoid contaminating the fundamental source of genetic variability for the future," said Rosset. "Just as GM wheat should not be sown in Iraq and Iran and GM rice in its centers of diversity in Asia."

As an example of the importance of preserving that diversity, Rosset pointed to a corn blight in 1970 that forced U.S. farmers to look for native varieties in Mexico.

Joined by activists from other domestic and international organizations, Rosset called on the government to evaluate the extent to which GM corn is being grown here and to screen U.S. imports of genetically engineered varieties of the crop. Scientists suspect the GM corn found in Oaxaca was imported from the United States.

Rosset said removing the GM corn would be expensive and difficult, but possible.

The methods required and costs involved, however, would be impossible to determine until the government investigates how much GM corn already is being grown in Mexico.

President Vicente Fox's administration has not announced any plans to prevent the GM crop from spreading.

Organizers of the forum said Agriculture Undersecretary Victor Manuel Villalobos, an outspoken proponent of genetic engineering, had committed to attend, but canceled at the last moment. Neither he nor Agriculture Secretary Javier Usabiaga could be reached for comment.

Rosset credited Mexico with taking a stronger position than most other Latin American countries in defense of the country's native plant varieties. The government is still enforcing a moratorium on cultivating GM corn which dates from the previous administration and imports are allowed only when intended for consumption.

But the good intentions of officials at the Environment Secretariat, Rosset added, may not be able to compete with the influence biotechnology companies wield at the Agriculture Secretariat and Los Pinos.

"We know one of the major sources of financing for Fox's presidential campaign was Alfonso Romo, the owner of Grupo Pulsar," said Rosset. Grupo Pulsar controls Savia, one of the largest agro-industrial companies in the world.

"We're talking about the life science industry being in some sense the power behind the throne," he said.