WHETHER or not Chapela and Quist’s work stands up to scrutiny (see main story), there’s no denying that transgenes have spread to traditional maize varieties cultivated in Mexico.
Last month, researchers told a conference in the Netherlands that two separate teams have found transgenic DNA in around 10 per cent of crop plants sampled in Oaxaca province. “It is confirmed. There is no doubt about it,” says Jorge Soberón of the National Biodiversity Commission in Mexico, who described it as “the world’s worst case of GM contamination”. Contrary to many reports, however, no studies have found any evidence of transgenes…
