This is directed to Mish but anyone else please join in. In cases you don't know maize (we use the word corn in America, but that can mean other grains in other places) was spead from Mexico to the world. I think the Aztecs had that and cotton (inner and outer crops) growing in 5 colors. Anyway, I remember yrs. ago seeing a documentary showing this (the booming voice of GMO DNA had drifted all the way into the ancient tiny ears of Mother Corn), then hearing it wasn't true, then later hearing the researcher had gotten untruthfully discredited by the powers that be. You seem to be the right person to ask about this. Although you're a busy student, but here's a chance to brag to the world about what you've learned!
Member mish said "I'm in Cholula, Mexico, 100 k or so south of Mexico city at 2200m altitude. Most land is agricultural, though once upon a time the valley was covered with oak forest (less than 10% are left), pine forests in some areas. Mostly it's a good location because it's close to everything, there are rainforests, deserts, marshes, all within a 200km radius. I'm an anthro student and now i'm working on a project on GM corn and immigration in the Tehuacan Valley (birthplace of corn, according to Mac Neish) and trying to learn more about botany, ecology and permaculture.
Peace!"
Member mish said "I'm in Cholula, Mexico, 100 k or so south of Mexico city at 2200m altitude. Most land is agricultural, though once upon a time the valley was covered with oak forest (less than 10% are left), pine forests in some areas. Mostly it's a good location because it's close to everything, there are rainforests, deserts, marshes, all within a 200km radius. I'm an anthro student and now i'm working on a project on GM corn and immigration in the Tehuacan Valley (birthplace of corn, according to Mac Neish) and trying to learn more about botany, ecology and permaculture.
Peace!"
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Re: GMO in the Mother Corn
Sat, July 29, 2006 - 6:17 PMI don't know about the corn. But the GM papaya developed at UH Hilo Hawaii has gotten loose and crossed with (Infected is more like it) the trees of the organic growers on the Island. As a result a large number of trees and harvests were essentially destroyed. Time for the condom makers to invent a new product. Botanical prophylactics. -
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Re: GMO in the Mother Corn
Wed, August 9, 2006 - 12:33 PM
GMO corn is present in contaminated corn in a lot of central mexico. A few years back, a researcher form Berkeley found GMO contaminated corn in a seed bank in rural Oaxaca, as soon as the news spread the National Institute of Ecology (INE) started testing corn in the following seasons. About two years later there was no longer presence of GMO's in the tested corn. The people who did the study (Sol Ortiz and Allison Snow) got screwed over on all sides. The NGO's said they had sold out, and the corporations tried to use it as an excuse to say that there isn't danger in GMO corn. Anyway, The whole thing is still up in the air. GMO's can cross-pollinate and it's REALLY FUCKING DANGEROUS especially in mesoamerica that's a center of origin... ick!
Still there are other threats to corn biodiversity that have been severely overlooked. The main one, in my opinion, is free trade. NAFTA opened the door to GMO imports (in 2008 all restrictions on agricultural trade will be removed and massive dumping of subsidized US corn will be a huge problem) at the same time the local farmers can't compete and are forced to migrate. Migration to the US has become the norm. Young people don't know how to grow corn because they assume that at a working age they'll head north, at the same time that farmers abandon the land because they can no longer make a living from it. If people stop growing their varieties, the threat can be even freater than that of GMO contamination. Still, environmentalists have overlooked this problem. The fight against this needs to become politically engaged to get anywhere... It's a mess...
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