Last week, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack hosted his counterpart from South of the border, Mexico’s Secretary of Agriculture and Rural Development and took him on a tour of an Iowa farm near Ankeny. Vilsack notes that while a looming policy in Mexico may stop genetically modified corn from being planted in Mexico, the country’s policy is not keeping GMO corn grown in the U.S. from being sold to Mexico. South Dakota Corn Grower’s Association President Scott Stahl says that’s encouraging as Mexico’s an important market for U.S. corn.
He says there’s a growing demand for B.T. or GM corn and the U.S is very good at producing it and being able to keep up with feeding a growing world population.
Stahl says it’s critical to keep the Mexican market open for U.S. corn and having Secretary Vilsack visit with them can only help.
More than 90 percent of U.S. corn is genetically modified and while Mexico is phasing out GM crops for human consumption, Vilsack says the country doesn’t grow enough corn for the one billion tortillas that Mexicans consume each day.
