Protecting the wild ancestors of maize | Lessons for efforts to protect indigenous and other traditional farmers and plant breeders in the USA
Moderator’s Note: While Spain is not a center of origin and diversity of maize (corn), there is growing concern in that country over the threat of genetic contamination of the wild ancestors of the grain as a result of cross-pollination with genetically engineered (transgenic) maize. The proven threat of gene flow posed by transgenic corn has led a coalition of civil society organizations involved in agricultural and environmental advocacy in Spain to issue a letter urging their government to ban the planting of transgenic corn. The concerns expressed by the coalition are troubling indicators of an area of environmental risk that has been tragically underplayed in the USA movements to regulate the commercial planting of GE corn. This despite the fact that the USA has multiple bona fide centers of origin and diversity of maize, including the Culebra watershed in Costilla County, Colorado. In August of 2015, the Sangre de Cristo Acequia Association, which represents more than 300 acequi...
