Transgenic maize goes under the microscope

© Monsanto Company In 2001, 7.9 million hectares of land were devoted to the cultivation of maize in Mexico.

Although American and Canadian farmers have been purposefully planting genetically modified (GM) crops for years, Mexican maize growers were shocked to discover their own fields also contained bio-engineered genes.

Concerned, local citizens and NGOs asked the CEC to compile a report on the issue—a draft of which will come under public scrutiny at a March symposium in Oaxaca, the state where the transgenes first popped up.

Their discovery was a surprise because in 1998 the Mexican government had instituted a moratorium on GM-seed planting to protect the biodiversity of maize, which has played a vital social, cultural and economic role in the region for millennia.

"There's a planting ban because Mexico is the center of origin for maize and the risk of transgenic maize displacing some of these older varieties was deemed higher. But transgenic maize showed up in local varieties anyway," explains Chantal Line Carpentier, head of the CEC's Environment, Economy and Trade program. "It's such a controversial issue because it confirmed what scientists have been saying all along—that gene flow to wild and other cultivated species is inevitable."

In 2001, University of California, Berkeley, biologists David Quist and Ignacio Chapela claimed to have discovered biotech DNA in amongst the dozens of maize land races they were studying in Oaxaca, Mexico. Specifically, they reported finding Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), a soil bacterium used by biotech giant Monsanto to create insect-resistant corn.

The researchers' initial findings—published, and later withdrawn, by Nature magazine amidst a flurry of controversy—came from samples collected in Oaxaca's rural fields. They concluded that transgenes had introgressed into Mexican land races, but also found the transgenes in different genomic locations, suggesting instability and unpredictability.

Though methodological questions were raised—and there's been no confirmation of their second point—others have since reported transgenic presence.

The Mexican government has repeatedly confirmed transgenes in two states, after sending samples out to independent labs. Meanwhile, an independent study released last fall by a coalition of indigenous and farmer groups claimed transgenic maize had spread to nine states.

"About half of maize imports—roughly six million tonnes/year—from the US are transgenic, but are utilized in principle for animal fodder," explains Professor José Sarukhán, chair of the CEC's transgenic maize advisory group. "The reason why so much transgenic maize enters into Mexico is that US producers refuse to separate transgenic from non-transgenic maize and Mexican agriculture officials have had to accept this situation in order to be able to supply the demand for this grain in the country."

The theory is that farmers, either knowingly or not, planted feed-seed in their fields—or perhaps migrant workers brought GM-seed back from the US—and then pollination simply spread the transgenes through the air.

"The advisory group all agreed that the introgression of transgenes into native Mexican land races is inevitable, because once they're in the wild, they're going to spread," says Carpentier.

With transgenic DNA in the native maize, questions surrounding the potential impact on health, economics and biodiversity prompted requests from the community and NGOs that the CEC study the issue.

"They felt frustrated at the response to their concern in Mexico, so they decided to go for an Article 13 investigation," Carpentier says, referring to a section of NAFTA's environmental side-agreement that gives the CEC Secretariat authority to prepare a report independent of government involvement.

"We didn't have the expertise in-house to be looking at the whole problem, because it's very complex," she adds. "So we set up this advisory group, which is composed of experts from the three NAFTA countries in different disciplines, to take into account the various claims made by both sides of this controversial issue and prepare an unbiased report."

Naturally, it's difficult to please everyone in such a hotly-disputed arena and some stakeholders—such as Greenpeace, who called for an immediate ban on all transgenic maize imports—voiced concerns over the advisory group's make-up.

"We were very worried because when they released the names, some of them are very pro-transgenics and we protested," says Greenpeace Mexico spokesperson María Colín, who was later appeased by the participation of independent scientists.

"We talked with the CEC about this situation because it is very important to preserve the idea that the organization is independent. Even with the pressure from these companies, even with pressure from the American government, the CEC has to be neutral and independent."

Once the draft report is completed in February, it will be presented at the CEC's maize and biodiversity symposium in Oaxaca on 11 March, where members of the public, private sector, NGOs and government will all gather to hear and react to the findings and provide their input.

Advisory group chair Sarukhán says the comments and questions from the public will help enrich the study prior to the completion and presentation of the final report and its recommendations to the environmental ministers.

"We hope the recommendations and results that come out of the study will help the Mexican government take the adequate policy actions that may not have been taken at the time—and also to give NGOs and society in general, information on the precise characteristics of the situation," he says.

"We also hope such information will help the scientific community...manage situations of future transgenic introgression in this or other plant crops in Mexico."

This sort of exhaustive study is exactly what the community and organizations like Greenpeace are hoping for. After all, Colín notes, Mexico's transgenic dilemma is really a global concern—and it won't be the last.

"What will be the measures that the international community takes to protect centers of origin?" she asks pointedly, "because Mexico is just one of many cases."