As the global food crisis escalates, Big Biotech (Monsanto, Novartis, Syngenta, Dupont-Pioneer, Dow et al) are capitalizing on the desperation of the hungry at runaway prices and rapidly diminishing reserves as a wedge to foist genetically modified (GMO) seeds on a reluctant Third World. Latin America is a prime marketing target for Big Biotech’s little darlings, often tagged ”semillas asasinas” or ”killer seeds” for their devastating impacts on local food stocks. Now the killer GMOs are suspected of literally provoking murder most foul.

One year, when their fields were inundated with a would-be plague of grasshoppers, they put chicken coops in their fields so that the chickens could eat the grasshoppers and then they could eat the chickens. ”The goal,” as Hernández put it, ”is always to integrate and manage the equilibrium.” An old-fashioned approach one might say, but a thoroughly sane approach in my view. Whatever the sustainable agriculture movement heralds -- as an alternative to the Green Revolution or to the coming bio-tech or GMO (genetically modified organism) movement -- it reminds us of the sacredness of the full circle of creation and the possibility that, if we try, we can all live in harmony together.

In some parts of Southeast Asia, drought cuts farmers’ yields in 6 out of 10 years. Now drought tolerant maize is set to reach farmers across the region, thanks to capacity and relationships built by a CIMMYT-led project. ”Many of the hybrids we’ve already released use CIMMYT germplasm - without it we couldn’t make such good hybrids for farmers and we couldn’t make such a big impact on incomes or development,” says Fan Xingming, maize breeder and Director General of the Institute of Food Crops, Yunnan Academy of Agricultural Sciences (YAAS), China.

Genetically modified seed companies are bribing authorities and carrying out million-dollar advertising campaigns plagued with lies in order to ”create monsters that attack life,” denounced Jesús León Santos, an indigenous Mexican who is one of this year’s winners of the Goldman Environmental Prize. ”We showed them that the cultivation techniques of our ancestors are the best and that they represent life. We are on the right path,” León Santos said in an exclusive Tierramérica interview. This farmer, 42, has led land recovery projects since he was 18, inspired by traditional indigenous knowledge, and on Apr. 14 was awarded the annual prize given by the U.S.-based Goldman Environmental Foundation, seen as the ”Green Nobel”.

After 14 years of the North American Free Trade Agreement’s devastating effects on the majority of Mexican farmers, Mexico’s food system now faces another serious threat. Illegally planted and unknowingly imported since the late nineties, genetically modified (GM) corn has contaminated farms all over Mexico, threatening the livelihoods of small farmers, endangering consumer health, and putting at risk the incredible genetic diversity of native Mexican corn.

Mexico, widely thought to be the birthplace of corn, said on Wednesday it will begin allowing experimental planting of genetically modified crops, despite resistance from some farmers who question their safety. The regulations published in the official gazette are the last step needed to implement a law passed by Mexico’s Congress in December 2004 that authorizes controlled GMO plantings.

Almost all participants in the Mega Marcha were opposed to genetically modified corn being further introduced in Mexico. There was, however, a small group of farmers from the Chihuhua and Guanajuato provinces, driving a tractor with signs supporting genetically engineered corn. They even admitted that they had already illegally planted genetically engineered corn. Many suspected that the group was funded by industry. To dramatize their pro-genetically engineered stance, in a march with thousands opposed to genetically engineered corn, they set in flames their tractor. Undoubtedly, something that the other campesinos could not afford to do.

Meeting in Chihuahua’s Sierra Tarahumara last weekend, representatives of more than 20 indigenous Raramuri and Tepehuan communities vowed to defend the traditional corn that nourishes their cultures and livelihoods. At the Third Annual Corn Fair held in Ejido Bacabureachi, indigenous leaders agreed to implement measures aimed at protecting their corn from genetically modified (GM) varieties. Among the proposals considered was a demand to require that any corn entering the Sierra Tarahumara for any purpose have a certificate of origin.

Long-awaited regulations governing use of biotech products in Mexico are expected later this month, and the chances of prompt implementation improved greatly when the populist National Federation of Farmers (CNC) voiced support for controlled field trials. Former Mexican president Vicente Fox wavered on giving the green light to field trials near the end of his term, but Agriculture Minister Alberto Cardenas is making it very clear that President Felipe Calderon will not back down. If field trials get underway later this year, biotech corn seeds could be sold commercially in Mexico as of 2009. In anticipation of the regulatory package, the National Sanitation Service has approved 39 applications to plant bioengineered crops, and biotech companies are champing at the bit to get started.

Syngenta announced today that it has obtained regulatory approval in Mexico for Agrisure® RW, its corn rootworm insect control corn seed. Agrisure RW now has full approval in the United States, Canada and Japan, and import approval in Mexico, Australia and New Zealand.