According to Victor Manuel Villalobos Arambula, Under Secretary for Agriculture at the Mexican Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, the Mexican government will promote the production of genetically modified (GM) foodstuff because the food security of Mexico as a country depends on it.
Mr. Villalobos stated that "if those who claim to be environmentalists were in fact 'pure environmentalists,' they would be begging for the use of GMO's, but their opposition is not based on environmental motives, but has economic implications."
Mr. Villalobos was interviewed by Mexico City's newspaper Reforma in his office at the Ministry of Agriculture (SAGARPA) and he added that "the reasons for the rejection of GM food are based on an economic war that is going on between the United States and Europe."
"Mexico can not stay behind in technology innovation, but announced that the process will be carry forward with a cautious spirit in order to achieve a gradual incorporation of genetically modified materials," he said.
"If we continue with the use of the agriculture methods we now have, meeting the demand for food of our population will cost us the destruction of our soils, a struggle for water and, in brief, a complete depletion of natural resources," he said.
According to Mr. Villalobos, there is ongoing research for the genetic transformation of 25 crops, maize, potato, cotton, squash, soybeans, papaya, tomato, pineapple and tobacco.
"We can not adopt the biosecurity mechanisms that the US has, because from an ecological perspective we are very different; we have to go slower and make more risk analyses.
We have to address the concern of society, which is asking if what they are eating is harmful," he stated.