Mexico researchers show progress on the drive to replace US corn imports

MEXICO CITY (REUTERS)

This week, researchers at a top Mexican agricultural university showed the progress they had made in producing more non-GM yellow corn seeds to help replace imported grain from the United States, which is at the centre of a major bilateral trade dispute.
“What we’re going to do is make available to the producer the seed that they need ... and the technological package to achieve the desired yields,” said Claudio Carballo, operational manager of Chapingo’s corn seed production project.
The project aims to develop enough non-GM seed varieties cultivable in Mexico to replace about 6 million of the 18 million metric tonnes of corn that the country imports from the US annually, most of which is GM yellow corn. The project is expected to end within two years.
Mexico’s government wants to ban GM corn for human consumption, including its national staple, tortilla, on concerns about its health impact. It still permits, for now, GM corn as livestock feed and in industrial use in some processed foods and cosmetics.