Corn production, as well as the crop’s resistance to disease, pests and drought, may increase within three years because researchers in Mexico have sequenced the grain’s genome. Scientists at the National Genomics for Biodiversity Laboratory, in Mexico City, made a rough blueprint of the genome of a Mexican variety of corn, the country’s Agriculture Ministry said this week.

Mexico, widely considered the birthplace of corn, is close to finalizing rules governing experimental planting of genetically modified corn strains, a senior biosecurity official said on Tuesday. In Mexico, where tortillas made from corn are eaten with almost every meal, the government is determined to boost output in the next few years to offset rising prices driven by U.S. demand for corn-based ethanol fuel. Mexico’s biggest grain farmers have long lobbied to lift a 1998 ban on GMO corn plantings, arguing it would help lift lagging crop yields. But environmental activists say GMO would put Mexico’s numerous local corn strains at risk.

Mexico National Farmers Confederation (CNC) denounced Monday genetically modified food imports coming from the United States and demanded the government’s protection of biodiversity and human health. According to Cruz Lopez, CNC President, from over 11 million tons of corn purchased by Mexicans importers in US by 2006, 70 percent was genetically modified. The Farmers Union demanded federal government to strictly impose protection mechanisms on biodiversity and human health into Mexican law to face genetically modified food, especially corn, rice and wheat.

Concerned that Mexico has yet to join competing nations in the development of genetically altered food crops, the nation´s corn growers signed an agreement with agribusiness giant Monsanto Wednesday to buy and plant gene

tically altered seeds. [...] The National Confederation of Corn Producers (CNPAMM), which is affiliated with the umbrella agriculture association National Campesino Confederation (CNC) had been in negotiations with Monsanto for months to come up with a plan to convert some of the nation´s corn crops to "technically improved" seeds in order to resist plague and increase production.

Mexico will not let its guard down in the search for unauthorized genetically modified material in rice imports from the United States, a top government biosecurity official said on Tuesday. Marco Antonio Meraz, who heads Mexico"s biosecurity commission, said all shipments of US rice were required to show certification they contained no genetically modified material.

Mexico, the largest buyer of US rice, has halted several shipments at the border pending certification that the grain is free of genetically modified material, a Mexican government official said Wednesday. Chicago Board of Trade rough rice futures took a nose dive Wednesday, falling nearly the 50-cent trading limit on talk of the trade disruption, traders said. US export sales were already lagging about 20 percent from a year ago as business has been hurt since a biotech gene material LLRICE601 was found in the US rice supply last summer.

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico is conducting tests on U.S. rice imports to ensure it is free of genetic material not approved for human consumption, a government official said on Wednesday. Marco Antonio Meraz, who heads a federal biosecurity and GMO commission, said the government was testing for the LL Rice 601 strain, which contaminated the U.S. commercial supply last year. The USA Rice Federation said on Wednesday Mexican officials had stopped rice shipments at the border and were asking for certification that the grain is free of the genetically modified material.

Greenpeace environmental organization accused Mexican cornmeal companies Maseca and Minsa of introducing transgenic corn into the market; an action denied by the companies. Greenpeace Mexico consumer campaign coordinator Areli Carreon showed press official documents and lab tests confirming production of tortillas with transgenic, or genetically modified, corn.

Mexican agricultural producers asked the government to allow them to plant genetically modified corn in response to the so-called "tortilla crisis," which has seen prices surge for one of the country's staple foods. The head of the National Agricultural Association, or CNA, Jaime Yesaki, told Efe that planting genetically modified corn could be the "fundamental solution" for maintaining adequate production of this cereal grain that millions of Mexican households use to make the tortillas on which their diets are based.

Farmers from 19 Mexican states began a campaign Friday to protect natural corn and beans from their transgenic counterparts. The National Farmers' Association (ANEC) says the goal is to recover arable land now neglected or given over to a different use. Their strategy includes assembling a network of companies that exclusively produce beans to seek commercial and industrial alternatives.