Food
	Land
	and Culture

	Presentation Summary
	Lac Courte Oreilles Casino and Convention Center Oct 3-4, 2002
	Gene Flow and What Happened to the Maize in Mexico?
	James G. Coors Department of Agronomy University of Wisconsin-Madison
	Gene flow, once an arcane interest of a few plant breeders and biologists, has now become a central concern of farmers, ecologists, geneticists, ethicists, agribusiness and society-at-large. The biology of pollen and seed dispersal for crops such as corn has been studied for many decades. Cross-pollination is the natural manner of corn, and it has been the essential tool of corn breeders for more than 5,000 years. What now troubles many people is that new hybrid varieties carrying controversial genes are cross-pollinating with traditional and ancestral corn germplasm, and this may be unavoidable in the future. Our current discomfort with unanticipated cross-pollination of traditional varieties with genetically modified (GM) varieties stems not only from the fear of contaminating valuable germplasm, but also from a general distrust of biotechnology that is controlled by large, multinational, agribusiness corporations. The events surrounding the recent reports of GM contamination of Mexican corn show the many agricultural, ecological, economic and ethical crosscurrents affecting the use of GM varieties.
	From The University of Wisconsin-Madison/Extension
	Sponsored by a grant from USDA/CSREES/IFAFS
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