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Genetically modified crops
January 20: What would happen if a genetically modified crop such as corn, made resistant to a certain pest, spread its seed through cross-pollination to mix with unaltered plants? Might such tampering with the building blocks of life disrupt nature's fragile food chain? Hasten the extinction of species? Unleash a biological time bomb? The possible ramifications are not fully known, and that is the problem facing hundreds of government ministers, environmentalists and other delegates converging in Montreal to try to agree on regulating trade of genetically engineered plants and animals.The Montreal meeting during January 24-28 is an extension of failed talks 11 months earlier in Cartagena, Colombia, on the biosafety protocol. The Cartagena meeting collapsed when the US, Canada, Australia, Uruguay, Argentina and Chile blocked a draft accepted by 125 other countries. Copyright © 2000 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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