www.checkbiotech.org ; www.raupp.info ; www.czu.cz

Mexico this week barred Monsanto Co. and other biotechnology companies from
planting genetically engineered corn, rekindling fierce debate in that
country over the technology, October 2006 by Mark Stevenson.

Environmentalists said the government's decision will help prevent biotech
corn from contaminating native varieties in Mexico, the birthplace of corn
and still a storehouse of genetically valuable native species.

But the decision, announced late Monday by Mexico's Agriculture Department,
angered some biotech supporters that said it would limit access to plants
that could reduce pesticide and herbicide use and have other advantages for
local farmers. Columnist Sergio Sarmiento, writing in the newspaper Reforma
on Wednesday, called it "cowardly."

Genetically modified corn "is already in use in many parts of the world and
it has enormous benefits, both in terms of the environment and production,
given that it reduces pesticide use," Sarmiento wrote.

Even environmentalists don't think Monday's decision is the last word.

"This is temporary, because there is so much pressure from the
multinationals," said Gustavo Ampugnani of Greenpeace Mexico. "They are
going to put a lot of pressure on the incoming administration" of
president-elect Felipe Calderon, who takes office Dec. 1.

Monday's decision turned down all seven requests filed by companies
including St. Louis-based Monsanto, Wilmington, Del.-based DuPont Co.'s
Pioneer Hi-Bred International Inc. subsidiary, and others.

"We were surprised by this decision," said Eduardo Perez Pico, director of
technological development at Monsanto's Mexico subsidiary, which had applied
to start experimental fields in the northern states of Sinaloa, Sonora, and
Tamaulipas.

"These are not centers of origin or biodiversity of corn," Perez Pico said,
referring to the areas where corn ancestor plants or primitive varieties
grow naturally.

Under current law, such areas are off-limits to biotech planting, in part to
protect the genetic traits of those ancestor varieties in case their traits
are needed for hybridization efforts in the future.

In areas of Mexico where corn is determined to be a non-native or
non-original crop, "there is the possibility of a permit being granted for
the first phases of experimental projects," said Pedro Mata, of Mexico's
food safety agency.

Mata said Monday's ruling hinged on an ongoing debate over whether any area
of Mexican can be designated as a non-origin region for corn.

"The researchers and experts are still discussing it, and there are some
controversies," Mata said. There is no deadline for drawing up the map of
"safe" areas.

Mexico imposed a moratorium on the planting of genetically modified crops in
1998, but in 2005, President Vicente Fox signed a bill that set out a
framework for approving such planting in the future.

Farmers in Mexico first bred corn some 6,000 to 8,000 years ago. The country
is home to at least 59 species of maize, from the protein-rich variety used
to make tortilla chips to a softer grain mashed for use in tamales.

A study in the Sierra de Juarez region in the southern state of Oaxaca found
evidence of transgenic corn contamination in 2000 from corn that was
apparently imported for food use. The study was published and then retracted
by the science journal Nature.

Another study by Mexican and U.S. researchers in 2004 found no trace of
genetically altered corn in crops in the same area four years later.

[www.washingtonpost.com]

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