S ollowing the controversial GM maize crop, now have left some notes in the newspaper La Jornada that like to share in this space. As we mentioned under the cultivation of maize in Mexico goes back thousands of years of history, long before the English arrived. It is for this simple reason we have the greatest diversity of varieties of corn, each linked to different forms of management and developed under different purposes. If the Federal Government and the SAGARPA be able to understand the context in which it has developed the cultivation of maize in Mexico, fully understand the risks that brings the introduction of transgenic maize not only on the erosion of diversity mails but about the erosion of cultural identity that implies.
Given this dangerous ignorance, we have to inform citizens in other ways, reflect continually to find ways of organizing and political action against these myopic.
Below you will find fragments of the note and the link to read it in full:
"threaten diversity experimental plots of corn, says researcher"
Posted by Matilde Pérez U ,3-11 La Jornada -09, p. 35
Without the participation of farmers in conservation and research on corn and with the approval of experimental field trials of transgenic varieties are at risk of losing the diversity of the plant, said Antonio Serratos Hernandez, a researcher at the Autonomous University of Mexico City.
The existence of 300 races of maize is the result of indigenous resistance for over 500 years and the farmers who continue as guardians of grain, for whom distance is no impediment to the exchange of seeds, which ensures to maintain their diversity , added ... The study
The origin and diversity of maize in the Americas, Serratos notes that there are two strategies for the conservation of the grain: the collection and preservation of samples in genebanks and in situ conservation, which involves promoting and supporting the reproduction of social and environmental conditions of the farmer to preserve the seed ...
"The trail sees U.S. agro-technology and genetic resources ex situ conservation as a capital reserve of germplasm banks and industrial applications such as risk insurance for the future. The preservation of the corn is done through the sale of genetic resources of the farmers produced over centuries of community work. "That kind of preservation is of high value, but to develop the full potential and protect the diversity of culture is it necessary for farmers ...
In the study, Serratos points out that the best way to preserve the breeds of corn is to preserve the peasant mode of production. "You can not circumvent that protection of biodiversity (grain) requires the strengthening of rural society. It is necessary that (the producer) has improved living conditions to prevent abandon agriculture. "
in situ conservation, he says, requires government support and impetus to initiate programs that empower social action and community organization . The destruction of the social fabric in rural communities increases risk of extinction of corn, whose social and cultural significance should be reassessed. Their protection, he notes, is a task that should involve all the people of America
Full story:
http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2009/11/03/index.php?section = society & article = 035n2soc
0 comments:
Post a Comment