Comment:
This is the most disturbing article I have read in many years of study of the
genetic engineering issue. What this means is that an entire species in its
native state may soon become, in effect, genetically engineered. That is, it
will no longer be possible to find non-genetically engineered corn growing in
the wild anywhere.
Trees may be the next victims of genetic engineering. Scientists are
engineering into trees genes from various plant and animal species, in an
effort to "improve" the trees.
In fact, rather than improving organisms, genetic engineering should be
classified as genetic damage. The "transgenes" engineered into an organism
are a new form of pollution that, for all practical purposes, cannot be
cleaned up. Even radioactive pollution eventually decays. But transgene
pollution will reproduce for as long as there will be life on this planet.
Tom
Genetic Modification Taints Corn in Mexico
By CAROL KAESUK YOON
In a finding that has taken researchers by surprise and alarmed
environmentalists, the Mexican government has discovered that some of the
country's native corn varieties have been contaminated with genetically
engineered DNA.
The contaminated seeds were collected from a region considered to be the
world's center of diversity for corn exactly the kind of repository of
genetic variation that environmentalists and many scientists had hoped to
protect from contamination. The result was unexpected because genetically
modified corn, the presumed source of the foreign genes, has not been
approved for commercial planting in Mexico.
Scientists expressed concern that the foreign genes could act to reduce
genetic diversity in the country's native corn varieties and in the wild
progenitor of domesticated corn, known as teosinte. If any of the foreign
genes are very advantageous, plants carrying those genes could begin to
dominate the population. In such cases genetic variation will be lost as the
diversity of plants not carrying the foreign genes decreases or disappears.
Whether that will happen or has happened remains unknown.
In addition to being one of the world's most important crops, corn is viewed
with a near religious reverence in Mexico, with seeds of native varieties
passed down from generation to generation. Until now, scientists said
researchers had assumed that these varieties, some of which are grown only by
subsistence farmers in remote areas, were pristine.
"These are the extremes, the places where you would really not expect to find
contamination," said Dr. Ignacio Chapela, a microbial ecologist at the
University of California at Berkeley, saying the results are an indication of
widespread contamination. "The only reason they found it there is because
that's the only place they've looked."
Scientists said the results also indicated that crop genes might be able to
spread across geographic areas and varieties more quickly than researchers
had guessed.
"It shows in today's modern world how rapidly genetic material can move from
one place to another," said Dr. Norman C. Ellstrand, evolutionary biologist
at University of California at Riverside. He said the real worry was that
other foreign genes like pharmaceutical-producing genes being developed in
crops could also find their way quickly and unnoticed into distant food
sources.
Genetically engineered corn, known as Bt corn because it produces the
insecticide known as Bt, has been in use by farmers in the United States
since 1996.
Mexico's Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources made the
announcement on Sept. 18 that contaminated corn had been found in 15
different localities. The announcement credited Dr. Chapela with the initial
discovery but described only the results from government-led research.
Neither Dr. Chapela's team nor the Mexican teams' work has yet been published.
Scientists assume the native corn became contaminated through interbreeding
with Bt corn, but how Bt corn may have come to be planted in Mexico remains a
matter of speculation. While not approved for planting, biotech corn is
legally imported into Mexico for use in food. Greenpeace, calling the
contamination a form of genetic pollution, is calling on Mexico to ban all
importation of genetically modified corn.
The Mexican government has not disclosed exactly what genes were found.
Exequiel Ezcurra, the director of the National Institute of Ecology, which
worked on the study, did not respond to requests for an interview. But Dr.
Chapela, who is familiar with the Mexican work, said the researchers had
identified the presence of DNA sequences from the cauliflower mosaic virus.
This DNA is used nearly universally in genetically engineered plants and does
not produce Bt insecticide.
As a result, it is still unclear whether any of the contaminated corn has the
ability to produce the Bt insecticide.
Scientists may eventually be able to quantify the biological effects of the
contamination, but some say the cultural cost in a country where corn is a
symbol of the Mexican people may be harder to measure.
"The people are corn," said Dr. Chapela, who is Mexican, "and the corn is the
people."
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