Monsanto plotting to wipe out genetic diversity of corn in Mexico with GMO corn
If agri-giant Monsanto gets its way, the company will destroy all genetic diversity in Mexico's corn crops by replacing it with genetically modified (GM) corn.
Outgoing Mexican President Felipe Calderon is considering approval of a proposal by Monsanto, along with fellow agribusiness behemoths DuPont and Dow, to plant some 2.5 million hectares (about 6 million acres) of "transgenic or GM maize" in the country's heartland, Digital Journal reported recently, noting that the amount of land is approximately the size of the country of El Salvador.
"According to ETC Group, the consequences will be devastating for the heart of the center of origin and diversity for maize, and also globally," the online publication said.
Ending Mexico's biodiversity of maize as we know it
If approved by Calderon, "this parting gift to the gene giants will amount to
a knife in the heart of the center of origin and diversity for maize," said the ETC Group, an organization that works to address the socioeconomic and ecological issues surrounding new technologies that could have an impact on the world's poorest and most vulnerable people, in a statement published on its website.
The consequences of Calderon's decision "will be grave - and global," ETC Group warned, because
planting so much GM maize would essentially wipe out all biodiversity, as well as the various local varieties of corn, developed over the course of the past 7,000 years.
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"If Mexico's government allows this crime of historic significance to happen, GMOs will soon be in the food of the entire Mexican population, and genetic contamination of Mexican peasant varieties will be inevitable," said Veronica Villa from ETC's Mexico office.
"We are talking about damaging more than 7,000 years of indigenous and peasant work that created maize - one of the world's three most widely eaten crops."
"As if this weren't bad enough, the companies want to plant Monsanto's herbicide-tolerant maize [Mon603] on more than 1,400,000 hectares," she said. "This is the same type of GM maize that has been linked to cancer in rats according to a recently published peer-reviewed study."