Mica Rosenberg

Reading Time: 2 minutes Colombia plans to nearly double agricultural land growing crops for food and biofuel, part of a new investment boom in the country as violence ebbs from a decades-long internal conflict fuelled by drug profits. The idea is to transform the vast eastern plains, dotted for years with illicit coca plantations, into the country s bread […] Read more

Reading Time: 2 minutes Organized crime gangs equipped with automatic weapons and tractor trailers are branching out into raids on huge grain silos, in a sign of growing lawlessness in parts of Mexico’s north. Attacks on warehouses and cargo trucks have multiplied into a near-weekly affair in the northwestern state of Sinaloa, where one of the worst cold snaps […] Read more

Reading Time: 2 minutes Mexico has approved the first pilot program to plant genetically modified corn, a sensitive topic in the country that touts itself as the birthplace of corn and where small farmers worry the high-tech grain may contaminate native varieties. The Agriculture Ministry granted a permit March 8 to global biotech seed maker Monsanto to plant no […] Read more

Reading Time: 2 minutes Genetically modified corn is trickling into Mexico after overcoming years of legal barriers, but where some farmers see the promise of reduced imports, others see a threat to their heritage. Mexico, widely believed to be the birthplace of corn, has long been hesitant to adopt transgenic maize seeds. But the country is also a major […] Read more

Reading Time: 2 minutes More than 500 years after Spanish priests brought wheat seeds to Mexico to make wafers for the Catholic Mass, those seeds may bring a new kind of salvation to farmers hit by global warming. Scientists working in the farming hills outside Mexico City found the ancient wheat varieties have particular drought-and heat-resistant traits, such as […] Read more

Reading Time: 2 minutes “If it hits the No. 2 wheat producer traders will go wild. You see what happened last year, and it could be far worse than that,” – Thomas Lumpkin, Cimmyt A mutant form of stem rust that wipes out wheat crops could spread to top producers in Asia unless new resistant varieties of wheat are […] Read more