E-C Why is everyone so agitated about the alleged contamination? In past, the answer is that developing countries such as Mexico now represent the front line in the war over GM technology.Agribiotech companies have largely saturated the North American market, and face a bleak future in Europe thanks so consumer opposition and the imminent introduction of strict labeling for GM food. The consumers and farmers of Central and South America, Asia and Africa represent the firms' main potential for growth. some companies are keen to stress the benefits that the technology could bring to rice farmers, for example. This year saw the publication of drafts of the entire rice genome, plus finished versions of two of its 12 chromosomes, and GM proponents are full of ideas for how the crop could be improved. Among the most appealing is the efficiency with which rice makes sugars by photosynthesis. But such goals remain distant. In the eyes of many activists, GM crops are primarily tools to advance the profits of agribiotech firms and wrest economic control of the food chain from small-scale farmers. This helps to explain one of the year's most perplexing developments: the decision of several southern African countries, though facing famine, to reject US offers of food aid containing GM grain. Most have since relented, provided that the grain is milled to prevent planting. But as "Nature" went to press, Zambia was still holding out.