Joint Statement on the Mexican GM Maize Scandal

A huge controversy has erupted over evidence that the Mesoamerican
Center of Genetic Diversity is contaminated with genetically modified
(GM) maize material. Two respected scientists are under global attack
and the peer-review process of a major scientific publication is being
threatened. There is infighting at the Mexican ministries of
environment and agriculture, and intergovernmental organizations and
international scientific institutes are squabbling over methodologies
rather than carrying out their mandates.

Background: It all began with an article in Nature last September
reporting on the findings of Mexico's Ministry of the Environment that
extensive GM maize contamination had been found in farmers' varieties
in two states. In November, a peer-reviewed article, also in Nature,
by Dr. Ignacio Chapela and graduate student David Quist at the
Berkeley campus of the University of California, offered scientific
evidence of the Mexican contamination. A subsequent story in Nature
Biotechnology reported that the Berkeley scientists had unconfirmed
preliminary indications that GM pollution may have seeped into the
world's most important maize gene bank. On January 23rd, at a
workshop hosted by civil society organizations in Mexico, the
country's environment ministry presented a study that revealed that GM
contamination of farmers' varieties of maize had been found at
contamination rates of up to 35% in remote villages in Oaxaca and
Puebla. The findings were jointly prepared by the Ministry of the
Environment and Natural Resources, the National Institute of Ecology
and the National Commission on Biodiversity.

Pro-industry and pro-GM academics went ballistic. News that a Center
of Genetic Diversity had been polluted with
GM traits could crush industry hopes that the European Union would end
its de facto GM moratorium in March. Industry is also concerned that
the April meeting of the Convention on Biological Diversity would
quash global labeling pressures and Mexico's specific calls for
compensatory mechanisms for biotech accidents.

Civil Society and CIMMYT Exchange: On February 6th, many of the
leading Farmers' and other Civil Society Organizations attending the
World Social Forum in Porto Alegre Brazil joined together to write to
Jacques Diouf, the Director-General of the UN Food and Agriculture
Organization (FAO) and Ian Johnson, the World Bank Vice-President who
chairs the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research
(CGIAR) to ask them to call for a moratorium on the shipment of GM
seed or grain into their Centers of Genetic Diversity. The letters
were in part prompted by telephone and e-mail discussions with Dr. Tim
Reeves, the Director-General of the International Maize and Wheat
Improvement Center (CIMMYT - one of the 16 CGIAR "Green Revolution"
centers). Although Reeves cautioned that the methodology supporting
the contamination studies was under attack - and that three rounds of
investigation at CIMMYT had revealed no contamination of their maize
gene bank, he did agree that there was GM contamination in Mexico and
that it would be only a matter of time before contamination reached
the gene banks. Reeves also volunteered that his comments could be
quoted. Since then, the CIMMYT director has expressed his regret that
CSOs did not wait for clarification on the issues of methodology
before writing to FAO and CGIAR, but he has stood by the two main
points: there is contamination in a Center of Genetic Diversity, and
it is only a matter of time before that contamination reaches into the
gene bank - if it hasn't already occurred.

Industry's strategy: CIMMYT could hardly be described as anti-GM. It
has the premiere biotech programme within the CGIAR. Why then are some
scientists and institutions attacking the findings of the Government
of Mexico and the Berkeley scientists? It would seem to be a project
doomed to failure since regardless of the methodologies involved - no
serious scientist can really dispute the contamination? Three reasons
make short-term gain for long-term problems a reasonable strategy for
supporters of industry:

1. Damage control in Europe and Brazil: The world's biggest non-GM
consumer of agricultural imports is still tottering uncertainly on the
issue of genetic modification. The more anti-GM activists can be
attacked or discredited
the better industry's chances will be to win an end to the de facto
moratorium when EU Heads of State gather in Barcelona March 15-16.
Meanwhile, Brazil - the world's largest non-GM exporter - has been
making loud pro-GM
noises. Concerns about environmental damage in Mesoamerica readily
translate into Brazilian alarm about damage to the Amazon. As with
Europe, the Mexican scandal is bad news for biotech in Brazil.

2. Biosafety Protocol containment: When the world's environmental
ministries gather in The Hague (April 8-26),
Terminator technology and the Biosafety Protocol are high on the
agenda. The Protocol emphasizes the special role of Centers of Origin
and Centers of Genetic Diversity. Unless they can keep doubts
circulating as to whether or not Mesoamerica is contaminated, there
could be an irresistible pressure for a moratorium and for industry to
foot the bill for clean up.

3. Academic intimidation: The Biotech industry has been hurt by the
scientific reports of respected academics such as Dr. Arpad Pusztai
and now Ignacio Chapela and David Quist (authors of the Berkeley
study). Pusztai (formerly employed at the Rowett Institute in
Edinburgh, UK) published a study revealing that GM potatoes fed to lab
rats interfered with their growth, organ development, and immune
systems.) They got Pusztai temporarily muzzled and fired, and they
want to do the same to Chapela and Quist - as a warning to any other
academics who break ranks over GM research. Pro-industry academics
are engaging in a highly unethical mud-slinging campaign against the
Berkeley researchers.

Given the stakes, the biotech industry's desperate attempts to cloud
and confuse the scandal is not surprising. If EU Heads of State drop
their moratorium in March and the Biodiversity Convention skates clear
in April without demands for contamination compensation, then whatever
bad news comes down in May is manageable.

CIMMYT's role: What is harder to understand is the silence of CIMMYT
and the entire CGIAR. Hiding behind a debate they themselves
understand to be irrelevant on methodologies of GM detection, the
Center that sees itself mandated to conserve maize genetic diversity
has failed to state firmly and publicly what they believe to be the
truth - that there is contamination in the field and there will be (or
is already) contamination in gene banks. Without taking sides or even
entering into the methodologies debate, CIMMYT must do what its
mandate demands - state the reality as they believe it to be and
announce the steps they are taking - and think others should take - to
conserve diversity and safeguard farmers. Anything less is corporate
complicity and totally unacceptable.

We call upon CIMMYT to:
* Publicly acknowledge that GM maize contamination has taken place in
Mesoamerica;
* Confirm that under present circumstances the operational assumption
has to be that GM maize contamination in gene banks is inevitable;

We call upon FAO to:
* Ensure that the Code of Conduct on Biotechnology which is currently
under development, incorporate mechanisms to control the diffusion of
GM materials to vulnerable regions and to guarantee that the burden of
ecosystem restoration and farmer and national compensation rests with
those who pollute.

We call upon CGIAR and FAO together to:
* Review the current FAO-CGIAR Trust Agreement to ensure that the
integrity of germplasm held in Trust is protected and that there are
no intellectual property claims pertaining to any of the germplasm;
* Recommend steps to safeguard local farmers' varieties and gene
banks.
* Propose an immediate moratorium on the shipment of GM seed or grain
in countries or regions that form part of the Centre of Origin or
Centre of Genetic Diversity for the species.

We call upon Academia and the Private Industry to:
* Renounce immediately the use of intimidatory tactics to silence
potentially 'dissident' scientists. We call upon the scientific
community to publicly support the academic freedom of scientists whose
studies conflict with the interests of industry and to censor those
academics and institutions that slander the competence or integrity of
those who publish peer-reviewed studies.

We request that the 6th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on
Biological Diversity meeting in The Hague, Netherlands April 8-26
place the issue of the GM contamination of Centres of Origin or of
Genetic Diversity on its agenda for urgent debate and that the World
Food Summit Five Years Later, taking place in Rome from June 6-13 also
place this issue on its agenda.

LARRY J. GOODWIN, ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR FOR ORGANIZING
AFRICA FAITH & JUSTICE NETWORK

ALLIANCE OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLE ORGANISATIONS IN ANDHRA PRADESH
CONVENOR: K. PANDU DORA

DR. RAUL HERNANDEZ GARCIADIEGO
ALTERNATIVES AND PROCESSES FOR SOCIAL PARTICIPATION

UTE RÖNNEBECK
BUNDESARBEITSGEMEINSCHAFT DER EVANGELISCHEN JUGEND IM LÄNDLICHEN RAUM

MARIO SALERNO HEAD OF THE HORTICULTURE SECTION
COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE, GUZE MICALLEF, MALTA

ANGELICA CIBRIAN, GRADUATE FELLOW
CENTER FOR ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH AND CONSERVATION
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

MAITE ARISTEGI, GENERAL SECRETARY, ENRIKE GISASOLA, UNION MEMBER
RESPONSIBLE FOR GENETIC ENGINEERING ISSUES, AND HELEN GROOME,
TECHNICAL ADVISOR ON GENETIC ENGINEERING ISSUES
EHNE: BASQUE FARMERS' UNION

BERHAN G. EGZIABHER, GENERAL MANAGER
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AUTHORITY OF ETHIOPIA

FELIPE MONTOYA, PH.D., DIRECTOR
FUNDACIÓN MILPA (MISIÓN DE INTERCAMBIO ENTRE LABRADORES PARA EL
AMBIENTE)

PETER ROSSET
FOOD FIRST/ INSTITUTE FOR FOOD AND DEVELOPMENT POLICY , USA
WWW.FOODFIRST.ORG

GESTION AMBIENTAL COMUNITARIA PARA LA CONSERVACION DE
LA BIODIVERSIDAD
PROYECTOS DE DESARROLLO SIERRA NORTE DE OAXACA A.C.

DR. HANS R. HERREN, DIRECTOR GENERAL
INTERNATIONAL CENTRE OF INSECT PHYSIOLOGY AND ECOLOGY

SUE EDWARDS AND DR. TEWOLDE
INSTITUTE FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA

TEJO WAHYU JATMIKO (EXCECUTIVE DIRECTOR)
KONPHALINDO (NATIONAL CONSORTIUM FO FOREST AND NATURE CONCERVATION IN
INDONESIA) .

YEOH J. K., GE CAMPAIGN RESEARCH OFFICER
PESTICIDE ACTION NETWORK ASIA AND THE PACIFIC (PAN AP)

ANDREW TAYNTON
SAFE FOOD COALITION (SOUTH AFRICA)
IN ASSOCIATION WITH THE NATURAL LAW PARTY.

CLARA INES NICHOLLS ,RESEARCH FELLOW, INSECT BIOLOGY
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY

RAINER ENGELS, COORDINATOR
WORKING GROUP ON AGRICULTURE AND NUTRITION OF THE GERMAN NGO-FORUM
ENVIRONMENT & DEVELOPMENT

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