Oaxaca seeks declaration of "GM-free territory"

Members of the Monitoring Committee of the First State in Defense of Native Corn, reported that the "Corn for everyone in the Coast" promotes entry into the body of transgenic grain. In response, state claimed Oaxaca as "GM-free territory", so it submitted a formal request to the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT).
In an interview, the representative of the group, Armando de la Cruz Cortes, said that the document emanating from the meeting held on March 31 in the Ethnobotanical Garden which was attended by indigenous peoples and communities.

He noted that even when there is food shortage in the state, the authorities have a policy to solve the problems facing indigenous peoples and on the contrary, the programs generated a strong dependency on agribusiness. With this, denounced, are allowed access to modified seeds, without giving up the impact, environmental, social and cultural development within the territory. Hence the delivery of this request to the Semarnat, it will also state government, since priority is given to the entry of GM and native seed stored in banks termoplasma. He said that Mexico imports more than 10 million tons per year from seed, of which 80 percent is genetically modified and is distributed through programs like Diconsa and through the "Corn for everyone in the Coast". He said that since 2002, when it detected the introduction of modified seed, there has been no study, so there is no knowledge of how far along pollution.
As he said, is a requirement to make the analysis, so they announced that they will remain to give the authorities response to this request.

With information from Olivia Hernandez

Growing Water Deficit Threatening Grain Harvests

Lester R. Brown

Many countries are facing dangerous water shortages. As world demand for food has soared, millions of farmers have drilled too many irrigation wells in efforts to expand their harvests. As a result, water tables are falling and wells are going dry in some 20 countries containing half the world’s people. The overpumping of aquifers for irrigation temporarily inflates food production, creating a food production bubble that bursts when the aquifer is depleted.

The shrinkage of irrigation water supplies in the big three grain-producing countries—the United States, India, and China—is of particular concern. Thus far, these countries have managed to avoid falling harvests at the national level, but continued overexploitation of aquifers could soon catch up with them.
Read more