There are certain parallels with the situation today in Mexico,
the birthplace of maize, which is at the centre of the global fight
to protect the crop's diversity from the onslaught of genetically
modified varieties. "It's the first time in history that one of the
most important harvests in the world is threatened in its centre of
diversity," Pat Mooney, the head of the Action Group on Erosion,
Technology and Concentration (ETC Group), an international NGO, told
IPS.
"If we let the companies win, there will be no chance to defend
them in other parts. What is happening here is of key importance for
the rest of the world."
Civil society organisations are raising their guard against the
possibility that the government of conservative President Enrique
Pena Nieto of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) may
approve commercial cultivation of transgenic maize, a move widely
condemned by environmentalists and other activists, academics, and
small and medium producers due to the risks it poses.
In September, the U.S. corporations Monsanto, Pioneer and Dow
Agrosciences presented six applications for commercial plantations
of transgenic maize on more than two million hectares in the
northwestern state of Sinaloa and the northeastern state of
Tamaulipas.
Moreover, in January these companies and Syngenta presented 11
applications for pilot and experimental plots to grow transgenic
corn on 622 hectares in the northern states of Chihuahua, Coahuila,
Durango, Sinaloa and Baja California. And Monsanto has applied for
an additional plantation in an unspecified area in the north of the
country.
Since 2009, the Mexican government has issued 177 permits for
experimental plots of transgenic maize covering an area of 2,664
hectares, according to the latest figures provided by the
authorities.
But large-scale commercial release of GM maize has not yet been
authorised.
"They are going to serve up transgenic maize on every table in
spite of the fact that food sovereignty depends on growing native
corn," said Evangelina Robles, a member of Red en Defensa del Maiz
(Maize Defence Network) which campaigns against GM corn. "As a
result, we have to demand its prohibition by the state," she told
IPS.
Mexico produces 22 million tonnes of maize a year, and imports 10
million tonnes, according to the agriculture ministry. The country
purchased about two million tonnes of GM maize from South Africa
over the last two years, and is set to import another 150,000
tonnes.
Three million maize farmers cultivate about eight million
hectares in Mexico, two million of which are devoted to family
farming. White maize is the main crop for human consumption, while
yellow maize, for animal feed, is largely imported.
The National Council for the Evaluation of Social Policy
(CONEVAL) estimates the country's annual consumption of maize at 123
kg per person, compared to a world average of 16.8 kg.
The historical link with pre-Columbian indigenous cultures gives
maize a strong symbolic and cultural significance throughout
Mesoamerica, the area comprising southern Mexico and Central
America, where it was domesticated, producing 59 landraces or native
strains and 209 varieties.
In the state of Mexico, adjacent to the capital city's Federal
District, small farmers have found their native maize to be
