Transgenic proteins in maize in the Soil Conservation area of Federal District, Mexico

Abstract

In 2003, the environmental authorities of the Federal District of Mexico declared that genetically modified organisms were incompatible with ecological agriculture practices established in rural areas south of Mexico City. To ensure compliance with official standards and organic agriculture policies, steps were taken to implement an early warning system for the detection of genetically modified maize in farmers' fields. In our sampling efforts, which were conducted in 2003, transgenic proteins expressed in maize were found in two (0.96%) of 208 samples from farmers' fields, located in two (8%) of 25 sampled communities. Mexico imports a substantial amount of maize from the US, and due to formal and informal seed networks among rural farmers, there are many potential routes of entrance for transgenic maize into food and feed webs. To sustain agroecological practices, preserve organic agriculture, and conserve maize landraces in the Soil Conservation area of the Mexican Federal District, environmental authorities will need to maintain and update ecological policies such as the “green seal” for organic agriculture, apply alternative technologies such as biofertilizers to enhance plant nutrition, and develop sustainable maize agriculture with the implementation of profitable intercropping systems.

Randomly Detected Genetically Modified (GM) Maize (Zea mays L.) near a Transport Route Revealed a Fragile 45S rDNA Phenotype

“…However, the detection of viable GM kernels along transit roads near the importation ports indicates that transgene “leak” to the environment has occurred, which is of concern to environmentalists and legislators [47,53]. A few studies in Mexico, the origin and center of diversification of maize, have revealed introgression of transgenes into local landraces [54–56]. Although Korea is not an origin of maize diversity and no threatened wild relatives are present, preservation of local cultivars from transgene contamination will require monitoring with updated methodology since failure to detect the presence of transgenes does not necessarily indicate their absence [55].…”

Comparing the historic olive trees (Olea europaea L.) of Santa Cruz Island with contemporaneous trees in the Santa Barbara, CA area: a case study of diversity and structure in an introduced agricultural species conserved in situ

“…Long distance gene flow in agricultural plants is complex and can be biologically and socially significant (Crosby 2003), e.g., the northern movement and convergence of northern flint and southern dent maize, Ukrainian red winter wheat brought to the US (Cox 1991: 26), maize to Africa in the 17th century, and today, US transgenes into local maize populations in central and southern Mexico (Piñeyro-Nelson et al 2009, Serratos-Hernández et al 2007. Historic populations of crop species are genetic resources for contemporary agriculture, including genotypes that could be readily evaluated and may be adapted to local conditions.…”

Political Agroecology in Mexico: A Path toward Sustainability

“…Genetic contamination of native maize was discovered during the past two decades in indigenous territories and peasant communities of Mexico [28][29][30][31][32][33], exhibiting the potential arrival of genetically modified maize to Mexico and triggering a countrywide upraise of unprecedented social resistance [34], a social movement that receives strong influence from agroecological principles. This resistance movement has been nurtured at urban, peasant, scientific, cultural (intellectual and artistic) national, regional, and local scales, and indigenous peoples' claims that were synthesized in the slogan "without maize, there is no country" (in Spanish "sin maíz no hay país").…”