Greenpeace Protest Over Contaminated Rice Precedes Bush-Calderon Meeting in Mexico

"We call on President Calderón to use this meeting with President Bush tomorrow to make clear that the commercial relationship between Mexico and the U.S. should not imply that Mexico will silently accept the genetically engineered food that is rejected by other countries," said Gustavo Ampugnani, anti-genetic engineering campaigner with Greenpeace Mexico. "Mexico is not the dumping ground for the U.S. genetic engineering experiment, and the relationship Mexico has with the U.S. should not be one of submission, nor one that allows rice into our country that other nations are rejecting," he added.

The mock wedding comes a week after huge volumes of U.S. rice were found to be contaminated with LLRICE601, a variety developed by Bayer CropScience that has not been approved for consumption in Mexico. Also late last week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced the discovery of another as-of-yet unidentified gene adulterating U.S. rice supplies.

"The U.S. is clearly incapable of protecting consumers, both in the U.S. and abroad, from the unknown effects of genetic engineering," said Doreen Stabinsky, Greenpeace scientist based in the U.S. "Many countries around the world, including all of Europe, Japan, and South Korea, have all clearly told the United States that they will not accept their contaminated rice. Mexico should do the same."

The contaminated rice has been found in rice supplies throughout the southern U.S., and the LLRICE601 contamination scandal, which began in August 2006, has been the worst crisis for the U.S. rice industry in recent memory. The USA Rice Federation has adopted an emergency plan to keep the contamination from next year’s harvest, although the bulk of the 2006 harvest is yet to be sold. With the discovery last week of further unidentified contamination, the USDA has taken the unprecedented step of ordering a ban on sales and planting of contaminated rice seed and the uprooting of rice that has already been planted.

Mexico is currently the largest export market for U.S. rice. Last week, Greenpeace Mexico activists staged a demonstration at the Ministry of Health’s headquarters demanding action to stop the import of contaminated rice.