The United Nations World Food Summit met recently to
decide whether genetically-modified crops will save poor
countries from famine or will contaminate normal crops,
presenting a danger to food supplies around the world.
Despite a ban on planting GM corn there, Mexican corn crops
have been contaminated by the GM StarLink strain, and this
contamination will probably never be eradicated. If it?s
discovered that there is some health or environmental
danger linked to StarLink in the future, Mexico will have the
hard choice of continuing to grow and consume it or will
facing starvation.
The most heavily contaminated area is Oaxaca, where one-
fourth of the corn has tested positive for GM. Thousands of
small subsistence farmers grow corn there. Olga Maldonado
says, "Corn is our way of life. Most of what we eat, like
tortillas and thick soups, come from the crop."
Six months ago, tests revealed that her corn field was
contaminated with genetically modified corn. "I'm concerned
because our children eat corn all the time,? she says. ?We
don't know whether it's safe to eat or not. The government
has told us nothing about these GM plants. Absolutely
nothing."
Olga?s corn, like other corn crops in the area, was tested at a
high technology laboratory nearby. "Despite the moratorium
on GM crop growing four years ago, many GM strains have
slipped through the net," says Juan Martin, who's in charge
of the testing. "Our best guess is that the Mexican corn
harvests have been contaminated by imported corn from the
United States. That corn was supposed to be for human
consumption but farmers weren't aware of that and they
sowed it in their fields."
The Mexican government is quick to defend itself against the
charge that it should never have allowed StarLink corn into
the country. "If there is GM contamination then it's not
because of any government failure," says Victor Arambula,
spokesman for the Mexican agriculture ministry. "We've had
a number of different campaigns aimed at telling farmers not
to use imported corn as seed. Over the last four years, we've
made it perfectly clear to farmers that this contamination
might happen."
To the outside observer, it seems inevitable that Oaxaca
farmers would have been unable to resist the temptation to
plant the corn, even if they did receive the government
message that they weren?t supposed to (which is doubtful),
since they are so poor.
"There will?be a drastic reduction in the variety of corn
strains in Mexico," Boone Hallberg says. Hallberg is a
botanist who has been working with Mexican corn growers
for 40 years. "Until now, when there's been a virus in other
parts of the world, people have been able to come here to
find strains resistant to the virus. GM contamination will
change all that. The thousands of varieties here will be lost
forever, threatening food security around the world."
The real dangers of GM food are bigger than eating
something that may not be approved for human
consumption. Learn the truth from ?Eating in the Dark:
America?s Experiment with Genetically-Engineered Food? by
Kathleen Hart,click here. Kathleen will be on our June 29
Dreamland show.
For more information, click here.
