Reuters | Sept. 12, 2003
VALLE VERDE, Mexico (Reuters) -- Mexican villagers were caught in the cross-fire of the global battle over biotech food on Friday when rival pressure groups at world trade talks scuffled with each other over how best to feed the poor.
A conservative U.S. group attending a World Trade Organization meeting in the Mexican resort of Cancun handed out boxes of genetically altered food to peasants in the nearby village of Valle Verde in an effort to show that biotech food is safe.
But Friends of the Earth environmental activists disrupted the handout, which erupted into chaos as baffled residents looked on.
"You are letting them starve, I hope you know that," said Monica Gonzalez, an American in favor of biotech foods, shouted at the environmentalists.
Gonzalez and a dozen other volunteers from the conservative Committee For a Constructive Tomorrow gave out packets of rice, sugar and other genetically altered staples in the village's main square.
But environmentalists unfurled a banner reading "Don't Let Big Business Rule The World" and a brief scuffle ensued between the activists.
"They are trying to give you unhealthy food," Friends of the Earth activist Raul Benet told the villagers. He said genetically modified corn imports subsidized by the U.S. government had also destroyed local agriculture.
Maize is always a highly charged issue in Mexico, arguably the birthplace of corn and a key element in the national diet, particularly in the form of tortillas.
Poor nations at the WTO talks in Cancun are pressing the developed world, particularly the United States and Europe, to cut the $300 billion a year it hands out in farm subsidies.
In the Mexican port of Veracruz, Greenpeace activists were trying to prevent the delivery Friday of 38,000 tons of yellow corn from New Orleans because they claimed it contained genetically modified corn.
Two activists tied themselves to the anchor chain of the Ikam Altamira, sitting in the Gulf of Mexico, to prevent it from docking to unload its cargo.
Greenpeace also said they were protesting the dumping of U.S. corn on the Mexican market at prices that undercut prices of local producers.
In Valle Verde, after the initial confusion over the handouts, most villagers carted off the free food packets and small children left their classes in a wooden shack school to snap up genetically-modified lollipops included in the hand outs.
The European Union and United States are on the same side in a rich versus poor fight at the Cancun talks over farm subsidies. But they are at odds over biotech food.
The WTO has launched an investigation into Europe's refusal to accept mostly genetically modified food imports.
Washington argues there is no scientific evidence pointing to human health or environmental problems related to biotech crops but Europe says it prefers to play safe after recent health scares like "mad cow" disease.Reuters:
