Mexico farmers quietly plant banned GM corn

By Mica Rosenberg

EJIDO BENITO JUAREZ, Mexico (Reuters) - In the dry state of Chihuahua, south of the Texas border, 68-year-old Amado Trevizo became an accidental outlaw last year when his son planted 10 sacks of seeds of GM corn, banned in Mexico.

Trevizo was left with the 10-hectare (25-acre) harvest when his son was killed in a car accident, making him the unwitting owner of a technically illegal crop.

That fact aside, Trevizo is delighted with his harvest.

"The other corn stalks were completely eaten by worms, but on those ones the worms only took a little bite and then fell off," said Trevizo. With genetically modified, or GM, corn he also saved money by using less water and pesticides.

GMO foods, whose DNA is altered to be resistant to pests, are pushed by supporters as a way to boost world food supplies, but opponents question their safety. In Europe consumers dub them "Frankenstein" foods.

The debate over GMOs is now dividing the Mexican countryside, known as the birthplace of corn, which was first grown in the region thousands of years ago.

Some farmers in the arid northern flatlands are planting banned GMO corn to boost productivity. But farmers in the south fear stray GMO pollen will ruin native corn varieties, and environmentalists also decry any entry of GMOs into Mexico.

The seeds are smuggled across the border from the United States, the world's largest corn producer. More than 70 percent of U.S. corn is genetically modified.

Armando Villareal, a Chihuahua farmer and GMO advocate, estimates there could be as many as 9,000 hectares of transgenic corn scattered throughout the state, although most growers will not admit they are experimenting with the seeds.

The state grows more than 100,000 hectares of mostly yellow corn, used primarily for animal feed. Most of the corn grown in Mexico is the white variety used to make tortillas, the country's staple food.

In December 2004, Mexico's Congress passed a law to allow the experimental planting of GMO strains in certain controlled areas, but implementing the law has been put off until the government can agree on how to regulate the plantings.

Because of the legal limbo, no one has been prosecuted to date for growing the crops.

Meanwhile, some producers are becoming impatient.

"We have to start taking advantage of all the scientific tools available if we want to increase productivity," Emilio Gonzalez, the governor of Jalisco, a corn-growing state on Mexico's western coast, told a recent event in Mexico City.

SACRED CORN