Crop Contamination and the Future of Indigenous Agriculture

Biodevastation 7: A Forum on Environmental Racism, World Agriculture and Biowarfare

May 16-18, 2003, Mildred Bastian Theatre, 5600 Oakland, St. Louis, Missouri USA

Dr. Ignacio Chapela, University of California at Berkeley
Dr. Mae Wan Ho, Institute for Science in Society (London)
Michael Dorsey, Dartmouth College
Ana Ruiz Diaz, Permaculture Network of Mexico

Transgenic DNA has made its way into traditional maize landraces in Oaxaca, Mexico. Dr. Ignacio Chapela will elaborate on the extent to which transgenic corn has contaminated indigenous maize and is actively growing in Mexico. He will also address some of the political economic implications of his research findings in Mexico for the $30 billion global seed market. As he noted in the California weekly The East Bay Express in 2002, there's something inherently unnerving about the fact that his $2,000 research project has provoked such an intense reaction from an industry that has poured millions into biotechnology research.

Beyond the impacts of transgenic DNA in indigenous corn, the panel will explore how horizontal gene transfer threatens biodiversity on a global scale.

As panelist Dr. Mae Wan Ho notes, "Horizontal gene transfer could spread transgenic DNA to unrelated species, in principle, to all species that interact with the transgenic plant, including bacteria and viruses in all environments, and animals that feed on the plant. Chief among the potential dangers are the spread of antibiotic resistance marker genes, the creation of new viruses and bacteria that cause diseases, and insertion mutagenesis, including cancer in mammalian cells.

Genetic pollution and horizontal gene transfer also underscore the importance of a largely unseen development which is nevertheless changing the face of life on earth: the transgenic manipulation of "lesser species," such as microbes, insects and fish. Drs. Chapela and Ho will chart recent developments and preview what is to come in this field.

The panel will also consider the ways which bioprospectors and biopirates alike are rent seeking patents and profits on select aspects of plant genetic resources, fauna and human beings -- often without the prior informed consent of indigenous communities where the collection is underway. Panelist Michael Dorsey, a researcher at Dartmouth College, notes "Preliminary data from the upper Amazon basin indicates that the benefits of bioprospecting overwhelming apply to firms and institutions based in the global north and not to the countries where prospecting occurs, and especially not to indigenous communities where prospecting often takes place."

Panelist Ana Ruiz Diaz, from the Permaculture Network of Mexico, will consider the extent of community and indigenous resistance to contemporary bioterrorism. Ruiz Diaz will discuss efforts to pass the Mexican Federal Law for Packaging which sought to impose a moratorium on genetically modified organisms, as well as on ongoing legal efforts to stop foreign bioprospecting and biopiracy in Mexico.

As Diaz notes, "Although multinational firms are conducting a huge planetary experiment capable of threatening the global food supply, communities are not standing still, and they will not -- ever."

The major panel on crop contamination will be…

10:00 am, Sunday, May 18. "Crop Contamination and the Future of Indigenous Agriculture"

Biodevastation 7 also includes the following panel discussions:

10:00 am, Friday, May 16: The International Threat to Farms and Farmers

7:00 pm, Friday, May 16: Globalization, Food Imperialism and War

7:30 pm, Saturday, May 17: Environmental Racism

On the afternoon of Sunday, May 18 there will be an anti-globalization convergence at the World Agricultural Forum (http://www.worldagforum.com). Call 314-771-8576 for details.

Cosponsors: Institute for Social Ecology, Greens/Green Party USA, JMG Foundation, Ben & Jerry's Foundation, Solidago Foundation, Fund for Wild Nature.