- CAPULALPAN, Mexico (Reuters) - In this one-telephone village in the hills
of Mexico's Oaxaca state, corn grows out of cracks in the sidewalks, along
roadsides and anywhere else it can find soil.
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- That may sound like a farmer's utopia,
but for people in Capulalpan and a host of other mountain settlements where
corn is a staple of every family's diet, it is more like an aberration
of nature.
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- Local and foreign scientists have concluded
the mysterious, ubiquitous corn variety is genetically modified, and illegal.
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- The presence of the modified corn amid
local corn varieties is not yet alarming, but scientists warn it could
usurp the hardier Oaxaca corn quickly unless it is stopped soon.
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- Transgenic strains were found in 15 of
22 communities in these hills and in 3 to 10 percent of plants in the fields
sampled.
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- "What's frightening is how fast
it has spread," said Yolanda Lara, spokeswoman for Oaxaca's non-governmental
Rural Development Agency. "The government must put a stop to this."
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- Mexicans, who see their country as the
birthplace of the centuries-old maize crop, are appalled by the discovery
of genetically modified corn in their most far-flung highlands.
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- And speculation that the modified corn
reached their lands in government trucks carrying subsidized kernels to
community stores has fired that outrage still further.
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- GOVERNMENT UNDER FIRE
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- Cultivating genetically modified corn
has been prohibited in Mexico since 1998, although it is imported from
the United States for human consumption.
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- Village elders for whom corn is a way
of life in the Oaxaca highlands first raised the alarm that a wild strain
of corn was invading their native or so-called "Creole" maize.
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- "This corn is going to waste away
our creoles," said Lino Martinez, the 81-year-old farmer of a small
corn plot in nearby La Trinidad, perched on a steep mountainside with cornfields
snaking up and down its slopes.
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- In La Trinidad, even the dentist's office
has a corn patch for a backyard.
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- Biologists used DNA-testing on the "wild"
corn and discovered that it was genetically modified. The University of
California at Berkeley confirmed local findings in November, prompting
demands that the Mexican government halt imports of transgenic corn.
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- With the presence of alien corn confirmed,
activists are now going after its presumed source.
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- Residents in Capulalpan and a string
of surrounding villages claim the corn arrived on government trucks dispensing
low-cost basic food items to people in the area, where almost every house
is flanked by a cornfield.
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- "Wherever those kernels fell, off
the backs of the trucks, from bags carried from the store, the corn would
grow," said Olga Toro Maldonada, 39, who cultivates corn in her backyard
to help feed her six children.
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- "It even grows out of the concrete."
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- She claims the corn has been in the village
for several years and is readily available at the local government store.
Locals say the modified corn kernels are larger, differently colored and
don't taste as sweet as native varieties.
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- SUSCEPTIBLE TO PLAGUE
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- Maldonada began planting the kernels
herself three years ago, curious to see how they would grow. She says at
least five other families in Capulalpan followed suit.
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- The results were remarkable, at first.
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- "The first crop was marvelous, yielding
two or three head of corn per plant instead of one," said Maldonada
as she walked through her tiny corn patch, pointing out varieties of maize
she said were Creole, genetically modified and mixed.
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- It takes between four and five head of
corn to create one kilogram of maize for tortillas, the nation's main staple
food, so the new corn strain at first seemed to be a godsend.
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- But the windfall soured as Maldonada
noticed that while the corn grew anywhere and with very little water, it
was highly susceptible to plague once ripe.
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- She only stopped harvesting the maize
after being told it was genetically modified and still an unknown quantity
in the science world, where the impact of transgenics on the environment
is unclear.
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- Scientists and environmentalists say
they are concerned the transgenic maize could usurp the Creole variety,
which has become largely resistant to local plagues and diseases.
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- Officials at the government's basic foods
distribution program, Diconsa, which sells subsidized corn to 23,000 stores
nationwide, deny claims they distribute the corn and say their maize is
grown locally or bought from local distributors.
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- Diconsa director general Fernando Lopez
Toledo told Reuters in a telephone interview that imported corns are only
bought when national production does not suffice.
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- Sources in Mexico could not identify
U.S. companies exporting the corn, which is transported in bulk and distributed
among Mexican buyers.
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- Mexico imports some 6 million tons of
corn each year to make up for deficit production, although Diconsa buys
only a fraction of that.
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- "And that maize is certified by
sanitary authorities in the country of origin and by authorities here in
Mexico," said Lopez, pledging to open Diconsa's 300 or so warehouses
to inspection to prove they were free of transgenics.
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- Environmental groups like Greenpeace
maintain the government is distributing the modified corn nationwide.
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- "Diconsa is importing it and distributing
it throughout the country," said Hector Magallon, in charge of Greenpeace's
campaign to prevent the contamination of Mexico's biodiversity with transgenics.
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- Most people in Capulalpan have no doubt
the corn came from Diconsa. They point to two giant corn stalks growing
from patches of grass outside the agency's store as proof.
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- The sales clerk at the Diconsa store
here also says that a portion of the corn he sells is transgenic. "You
can tell because the kernels are slightly bigger and the color is a bit
off," he said.
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- More scientific proof comes from the
laboratory at the USACHI agricultural research center in La Trinidad. The
lab discovered transgenic strains in samples of corn sold at the local
Diconsa stores, agronomists said.
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- "We were alarmed when we found that
the source of this corn was the government," said Lilia Perez, a local
agronomist who spent 20 days at Berkeley learning to identify DNA that
has been genetically modified.
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- "It is horrible we are actually
being sold this corn."
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