Ignacio Chapela: The Story of Corn -TUC Archives, October 2002 (TWO of TWO)

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The contamination of the cradle of corn with genetically engineered seeds

Ignacio Chapela from the University of California, Berkeley discovered that genetically modified corn had contaminated the cradle of corn in the remote mountains of Oaxaca, Mexico. The Zapotecan Indians have cultivated corn there for over 10,000 years.

In Part TWO Chapela questions why a biotech company can take out a patent on a living seed after making minor changes in the DNA. He also warns of horizontal gene transfer whereby an engineered gene from one organism may enter the genome of another species, including humans.

Ignacio Chapela is now (2018) associate professor of microbial ecology at UC, Berkeley.

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