MEXICO CITY - A NAFTA environmental commission said yesterday it would investigate reports of transgenic corn growing in southern Mexico, responding to concerns that imported corns have contaminated native crops.
Scott Vaughan, head of the economy and trade division of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC), said genetically modified corn was a "huge issue" for Mexico and warranted additional investigation. Results of the probe in the southern state of Oaxaca could come within nine to 10 months, he told Reuters.
The CEC is an environmental body set up under the North American Free Trade Agreement, which joins the United States, Mexico and Canada. CEC scientists from the three countries will begin the investigation in mid-July, Vaughan said.
The cultivation of transgenic corn was banned in Mexico in 1998 amid fears it would contaminate the hundreds of wild, creole varieties growing here, believed by many to be the birthplace of corn.
But scientists from the University of California at Berkeley published studies last year saying they had found transgenic corn, also known as GM corn, in the mountains of Oaxaca.
The results from Berkeley have since been challenged, though the scientists and local groups maintain the mutated corn is still spreading in the Oaxaca Sierra, where villages are perched on the sides of steep hills.
Maria Colin, a legal adviser for the environmental group Greenpeace in Mexico, said she expected the CEC study to confirm the presence of transgenic corn strains in Oaxaca and pressure Mexico's government to ban imports of the corn.
"It's extremely difficult to stop (transgenic corn contamination) and to not have more cases like those already reported in Oaxaca," Colin said, adding her voice to others who allege the contaminated corn arrives on trucks carrying subsidized grains to poor villagers.
Genetically modified crops are spliced with foreign genes to help plants resist drought and pests.
No health risks have been identified in consuming GM corn, and proponents point to its high nutritional value, but detractors say it could overtake native crop varieties.
Greenpeace and Mexican environmental groups sponsored a petition before the CEC, asking for a probe of transgenic corn's effect on the biodiversity of native Oaxacan corn and to determine the source of contamination.:
