Mexican Maize Pollution by GMOs

Farmers raising GM corn safe for you to eat.

Three Articles from NGIN 14mar02

• BBC's Crossing Continents on Mexican Maize scandal
• Preserving the integrity of Indian corn
• (PART II) Safeguarding Sacred Corn
  
  

  Crossing Continents Mexico

  BBC Radio Four Reporter: Nick Caistor 14mar02

  Southern Mexico is the cradle of maize, and a hot spot of bio-diversity. But is that heritage now being threatened by inadvertent planting of genetically modified maize? Nick Caistor reports on the fall-out of the surprise discovery of GM maize 60 miles from the nearest GM plantation.
  
  Amado Ramirez has had a great business idea. He lives in Oaxaca, where Mexicans have grown maize for thousands of years.
  The potential of maize
  People here in Oaxaca, in the rest of Mexico, and increasingly in the southern USA, eat tortillas, round maize pancakes, with every meal.
  Maize is more than a food in Mexico - it is a way of life
  
  Amado Ramirez:
  "Maize is more than a food in Mexico, it's a way of life," Amado says in his spruce new tortilla shop Itanoni in Oaxaca city. "So I thought, why not make it a gourmet product, putting as much care and attention into making tortillas as chefs do into other delicacies."
  
  To make his tortillas as authentic as possible, Amado has his own suppliers of maize grown on the mountainous slopes that surround the city. Then he grinds it and bakes it under strict supervision in his shop.
  
  But now his business is facing disaster.
  
  Discovering the GM link   READ MORE