GM food in Latin America

The approach on GM crops is dividing Latin America, GlobalPost reports. Ecuador’s constitution actually prohibits them and Peru recently voted for a 10-year moratorium. Together, Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay have roughly 120 million acres (about 48.5 million hectares) of GM crops, principally soybean, but also large amounts of corn. According to Carlos Vicente of the Argentine branch of Grain, a nonprofit that advocates for small farmers, 60 % of Argentina’s entire agricultural surface - 48 million acres (19.5 million hectares) - is now used to grow GM soy, mainly for export for both human consumption and as livestock feed. (Picture: Peru)
 

Costa Rican Congressman Claudio Monge has said he was increasingly confident that legislators in his country were on the verge of rejecting an application from a Monsanto subsidiary to grow GM corn. Costa Rica is a small country that depends heavily on ecotourism, Mr Monge told GlobalPost. The country has 6 % of the world’s biodiversity  and all the genetic diversity of crops they needed naturally. They should not be chopping down forest to sow GM corn or pineapples, he continued. The full article is available here: GlobalPost