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México deve estabelecer regras sobre transgênicos em duas semanas (em inglês)
2006-10-19
Mexico will establish rules within two weeks allowing biotech companies
to plant test crops of genetically modified, or GMO, corn seeds, the
government said Wednesday. Mexico, widely considered the origin of many
of the world s corn varieties, recently prohibited biotech firms
Monsanto , Pioneer Hi-Bred International and Dow AgroSciences from
planting GMO test crops.
Javier Trujillo, head of the agricultural health service in Mexico, told Reuters the permits were rejected because the government had not completed a map of native corn species and a scheme to protect those species, both legally required for GMO tests in Mexico. "I expect these two requirements will be published in the government journal in one or two weeks," he said.
The companies would be allowed to plant GMO test crops in Mexico after that, Trujillo said. US-based Monsanto, the GMO industry leader, was not immediately available for comment. Mexico, which prides itself as the historical home of corn, is a big consumer of US corn and corn seeds but is a major corn producer. About a million mostly poor farmers plant the crop, often on small plots in remote areas.
About 500 larger corn farmers in the north of the country are lobbying the government to allow them to use GMO seed, which they say would boost yields by around 10 percent. Mexican farmers struggle to compete with their northern neighbors, who enjoy better crop yields and government subsidies.
Environment group Greenpeace warned the genetic diversity of corn in Mexico, where it has been cultivated for thousands of years, would be put at risk by the widespread use of GMO seeds. "It is really stupid to risk contaminating a genetic origin center that has an incredible ecological richness just to please 500 people, big farmers," said Gustavo Ampugnani, who heads the groups anti-GMO campaign in Mexico.
In 2001, researchers discovered native corn strains in the southern state of Oaxaca, where some of the earliest evidence of domesticated corn comes from, had cross-bred with transgenic DNA.
(Por Adriana Barrera e Frank Jack Daniel, Planet Ark, 19/10/2006)
Javier Trujillo, head of the agricultural health service in Mexico, told Reuters the permits were rejected because the government had not completed a map of native corn species and a scheme to protect those species, both legally required for GMO tests in Mexico. "I expect these two requirements will be published in the government journal in one or two weeks," he said.
The companies would be allowed to plant GMO test crops in Mexico after that, Trujillo said. US-based Monsanto, the GMO industry leader, was not immediately available for comment. Mexico, which prides itself as the historical home of corn, is a big consumer of US corn and corn seeds but is a major corn producer. About a million mostly poor farmers plant the crop, often on small plots in remote areas.
About 500 larger corn farmers in the north of the country are lobbying the government to allow them to use GMO seed, which they say would boost yields by around 10 percent. Mexican farmers struggle to compete with their northern neighbors, who enjoy better crop yields and government subsidies.
Environment group Greenpeace warned the genetic diversity of corn in Mexico, where it has been cultivated for thousands of years, would be put at risk by the widespread use of GMO seeds. "It is really stupid to risk contaminating a genetic origin center that has an incredible ecological richness just to please 500 people, big farmers," said Gustavo Ampugnani, who heads the groups anti-GMO campaign in Mexico.
In 2001, researchers discovered native corn strains in the southern state of Oaxaca, where some of the earliest evidence of domesticated corn comes from, had cross-bred with transgenic DNA.
(Por Adriana Barrera e Frank Jack Daniel, Planet Ark, 19/10/2006)
- AmbienteJá desde 2001 -