A Double Standard for GMO Seeds in Chile, Resulting in Fines if Caught

While Chile suffers through the most punishing drought in its history, one that has ruined harvests and claimed, through wildfires, more than 100,000 square miles of forests and grasslands, it struggles with domestic crop production. And in a country that exports some $9 billion in agricultural products a year, many produced with GMO seeds, domestic use of GMO-produced crops is still a punishable offense that includes steep fines and loss of crops, even though exporting these products is standard practice.

Now importing nearly 80 percent of its corn, and with no end in sight for rising temperatures and diminishing rainfall, Chile is positioned to push this number even higher unless other options, such as using GMO seeds for domestic product, are considered.

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