from the United States and more recently by the increased use of maize to produce ethanol in the United States.
     LAC is one of the most important regions in the world in livestock production. Nonetheless, beef exports are dominated by just two countries, Argentina and Brazil. Of total world beef exports, estimated at 5.72 million tonnes (USDA, 2005), Argentina and Brazil together account for 37%, with 2.14 million tonnes of beef exported between them. It is forecast that the economic take-off of Asia, mainly China and South Korea, will result in a 22% increase in demand for beef with respect to 2005 imports (USDA, 2005). As for hog production, of a total of 4.2 million tonnes sold in the international market, only 11% is produced by LAC. Once again, two countries alone account for the lion’s share of these figures: Argentina (48 million tonnes) and Mexico (440 million tonnes).
     Milk production in LAC is far below expectations, taking into account the proportion of arable land and pastureland in the region. The region produces only 8.96% of the milk produced in the world (FAPRI, 2006). The production of milk is concentrated in South America (Argentina, Brazil, Peru, Venezuela and Colombia). In terms of exports, the region’s performs at levels below what one would expect given the world dynamic in relation to processed products. Only Argentina and Uruguay export butter, cheese and powdered milk.
     The wealth of LAC’s marine biomass has not been properly taken into account, as evidenced by the low levels of production of this resource. The fish supply internationally is 100.2 million tonnes, only 3.1 million tonnes of which is produced in Latin America and the Caribbean (this figure does not include Mexico).
     The area in forests and timber production constitute another category with extraordinary potential. The region is one of the more forested in the world, with one-fourth of the total forests worldwide (UNEP, 2002b). The forested area comes to 834 million ha of tropical forest and some 130 million ha of other types of forest, accounting for 48% of the total. This forest cover is not evenly distributed, for Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela account for 56% of the total. There are other countries, however, with serious forest problems, such as Haiti, less than 3% of whose territory has forest cover. The forests of LAC contain 160 billion m3 of timber, accounting for onethird of all timber in the world. In terms of exports, Brazil and Chile are the leading exporters of timber and timber products. It should be emphasized that any type of use of forest resources should take into consideration the possible environmental impacts and impacts on climate change and be done in the context of sustainable management plans. Today there are three programs for tropical timber certification that attest to the origin of the timber and whether it comes from a forest managed using certain criteria of environmental sustainability (Baharuddin, 1995). Forest resources may also be tapped by rural communities and provide an important source of income to the communities that live in forest areas. Mexico is one of the world leaders in community forest management for commercial timber production (Bray et al., 2005). The Mexican communities are attaining a balance between income-generation for the community and forest conservation.

      In summary, among the main trends in the region in recent years, special mention can be made of the production of oil-bearing crops, particularly soybean, which increased considerably in Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia and Paraguay, as well as African palm in Honduras, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Ecuador and Colombia. In addition, there was an increase in the cultivation of fruits and vegetables for export, mainly in Mexico, Chile, Argentina, Brazil and Costa Rica. Another trend during the 1990s was the increase in forest products in Chile, Argentina, Uruguay and Honduras and the increase in cattle-ranching in Brazil, Mexico and Chile. In the English- speaking Caribbean there has been a transformation of agricultural lands to urban development and tourism, increasing dependence on imported foods. In many countries of the region, the increase in exports has occurred at the expense of food production for the domestic market, which has led to an increase in imports of agricultural goods (including fish and forest products, as well as agroindustrial products).
     According to an extensive study by CEPAL cited by David et al. (2001), from 1979 to 2001, the region imported two times more agricultural products than it exported. Nonetheless, FAO data show that the deficit in the exports of grains and legumes is much greater for the countries of Mesoamerica and the Caribbean than for South America, although the data for South America are highly influenced by the exports of countries such as Brazil and Argentina (see Figure 1-9). This emphasis on export products also has repercussions on the food sovereignty of the countries of the region. For example, among the products with a market deficit are products essential for food in the region, such as maize, beans, rice, cereal grains, milk and other dairy products (David et al., 2001). Finally, these trends have also affected the agrarian structure of several countries in the region, since the increase in exports has taken place mainly in the most capitalized sector of agriculture (the large-scale producers tied to agroindustry and the export market) and have resulted in the displacement of small-scale producers. The CEPAL study concludes that the neoliberal reforms responsible for the changes described have accentuated the differences between those who have access to capital and market and those who do not (David et al., 2001).

Transgenic crops. Despite the controversy concerning around transgenic crops, gradually they have been adopted in LAC, with impacts perceived by some as negative and by others as positive, in relation to the goals of sustainability, poverty reduction and equity. The Southern Cone is the region with the largest production of transgenic crops, with almost 32 million ha planted in 2006 (Argentina, 18; Brazil, 11.5; Paraguay, 2; Uruguay, 0.4). Mexico, Colombia, Honduras and more recently Bolivia are also producing transgenic crops, but have less than 0.1 million ha each (James, 2006). Today, LAC produces just over one-third of the transgenic crops in the world. Most are accounted for by just three crops: herbicide-resistant soybean (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, Bolivia and Mexico), Bt maize (Argentina, Uruguay and Honduras) and Bt cotton (Argentina, Brazil, Mexico and Colombia) (Table 1-9) (James, 2006).

     Transgenic crops have been an economic success story in some countries of Latin America, in particular Argentina;