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Mexican Lifestyles Food & Dining Will 'Super Corn' Overrun Mexico?
Mexican Lifestyles Food & Dining Will 'Super Corn' Overrun Mexico? | Will 'Super Corn' Overrun Mexico? |
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| Written by MEGAN SMITH | |
| Saturday, 17 March 2007 | |
 ' ' - Photo By J. Cortaza By cross breeding and controlling seed development, Mena and his team were able to replace about 50 percent of low quality protein found in regular corn, with high quality proteins carrying the amino-acids lysine and trytophen. "The Super Maiz is as productive as other varieties and it costs the same to grow and harvest: some 7,000 pesos per hectare of crop. It just carries a lot more nutrition," Mena said at a press conference unveiling the new variety. Mena believes the multicolored corn, whose official name is QPM (Quality Protein Maize), will benefit the nearly 40 million Mexicans that lack an adequate diet. "If we can count on public policy to adequately promote QPM, Mexicans will be better nourished," said the scientist. When Ignacio Michel Velasco, owner of Grupo Industrial Michel, heard about the Super Maiz in 2002, he jumped at the chance to test its commercial viability with his snack food products. Michel was delighted with the resulting sample batches of Korn Flakes, Doritos, and Chetos. "We used only QPM and obtained both better consistency and flavor," he said at a press conference. Not everyone is embracing the new corn, though. Environment activists, Greenpeace in particular, are urging the Mexican government to tighten restrictions on genetically modified organisms. Recently, they denounced increased corn imports from the United States. Greenpeace believes the imports include genetically modified corn that contaminates traditional Mexican corn crops, endangering the ecosystem and the future of Mexican corn. "Super Maiz is not a transgenic," insisted Mena, clarifying that, in contrast to genetically modified seeds in the United States, the Super Maiz contains no genes taken from other species. For the time being, the Super Corn is not ready for distribution to Mexican farmers and poses little threat to the local corn industry, which is dominated by small parcel producers. Because it relies on a recessive gene, Super Maiz cannot naturally reproduce and would require extensive controlled cultivation to fulfill Mexico's yearly 28-million-ton demand. |
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