Mexico's Tortilla Feeds Debate on GM Food Safety
Date: 27-Feb-04
Country: MALAYSIA
Author: Patrick Chalmers
Mexico, the birthplace of maize, faces competing pressures of deep trade ties with the United States and Canada, both strong promoters of the use of GM crops, versus the will of a large peasant population whose culture and religious beliefs drive them to protect their dozens of native varieties.
The debate over Mexican tortillas typifies the issues being thrashed out at the Kuala Lumpur talks on cross-border trade in GM species, due to end on Friday, which will affect a global grain trade worth billions of dollars.
Mexico struck a deal with its two northern partners last October, setting rules for tri-lateral trade in both gene-modified and conventional grain varieties, including maize.
The agreement requires shippers to identify cargoes known to contain GM crops but absolves them of responsibility for unknowingly shipping GM-contaminated loads and defines cargoes containing less than five percent of GM seeds as not having any.
Delegates in Malaysia, including Mexican environmental campaigners, say the deal sets a precedent that undermines efforts to set stricter global rules within the U.N.'s Cartagena Biosafety Protocol under negotiation.
"Basically the grain traders and companies are saying: 'We don't know, it's not our responsibility'," said Silvia Ribeiro, Mexican campaigner with the ETC group, which works on ecological and cultural conservation issues.
"It's like legalizing contamination," she said, adding GM maize had already turned up on plots all over Mexico despite being banned, risking crosses with local varieties. Mexico's lead negotiator, Victor Villalobos, said 30 percent of the 5.6 million tonnes of feed corn his country imported each year was gene-modified, supplying meal for chicken and pig farmers as well as the edible oil and corn starch industry. He said U.S. imports of strains developed by the likes of Monsanto cost $72 per ton versus Mexico's $120.
"We cannot compete with the United States for these kinds of corn. If we tell them to send us GM-free corn, it will cost us in the order of 40 or 70 percent more," he said, defending the deal.
Scientists say GM plants, which have foreign genes implanted for traits such as increased pest resistance, can cross unpredictably with conventional ones to form new species.
Talks under the Biosafety Protocol, involving nearly 90 countries including Mexico but excluding major growers such as the United States, are intended to curb the risks arising from trade in GM species.
Negotiators are working out terms for an international liability regime covering any damage from GM plants, a redress system should such damage occur and other items including shipment labeling and compliance requirements.