La bioseguridad y el maíz en México ¿En pro de los transgénicos o en pro de la cultura y la diversidad del maíz?

Abstract

Abstract. This article gives a recent view about present events in Mexico concerning maize’s biosafety. There exists a debate in the country about the convenience of liberalizing transgenic maize’s production in the territory, as Mexico is the center of origin of the crop and there exists considerable genetic diversity, so transgenic varieties, being freely cultivated, could affect this diversity. In the mean time, there are powerful economic interests that make pressure to liberalize transgenic maize production in Mexico. Until now, it is only permitted to do field trials with these new plants, ruled by Biosafety Law approved in 2005. In the manuscript we make a description of events related with maize’s biosafety since the first discovery of transgenes contamination in Oaxaca in 2001. In this way we expose briefly Bisoafety Law and its Special Maize’s Regime, as well as a recently approved research project to generate knowledge about Mexican maize’s varieties in Sierra Norte de Puebla. Participants in this project are Puebla’s government, Monsanto Company, a maize´s producers union that is part of National Peasant Confederation and Agrarian University Antonio Narro. In the last part we try to make a balance of the sociopolitical process concerning maize´s biosafety, the risks contained in this and we make some suggestions about public policies to protect genetic diversity of the crop.