254 R White is highly valuable precisely because of its multiple characteristics and uses Typically, a flex crop straddles multiple commodity sectors (food, feed, fuel, other industrial commodities); geographical spaces (for example, NorthSouth); and international political economy categories (for example, OECD countries, non-OECD countries) This makes flex crops very attractive to growers and buyers around the world insofar as everyone it seems can find a place in the market The four key flex crops today are maize, oil palm, soybean and sugarcane Important producers and exporters of flex crops and commodities include, for example, Argentina for soya, Malaysia and Indonesia for palm oil, and Vietnam for fast-growing trees (Borras et al 2013) One type of crop, such as fast-growing trees, can be sold as a commodity in respect to diverse markets, including in this case timber products, biofuel and/or carbon offsets Multi-purpose crops exacerbate the push towards fewer varieties Species reduction is also associated with ease of production, distribution and marketing For instance, there is also a trend towards monoculture since uniformity means ease of cultivation and harvest, translating into higher profits New agricultural and pastoral technologies reinforce this broad tendency towards simplification The global political economy of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) provides a case in point Countries that have been reluctant to adopt genetically modified (GM) crops have been subjected to intense pressures to so (Walters 2005, 2011) Ironically, given political claims that GM crops are vital in order to feed the world, GMO invasion of endemic species and crops is nonetheless seen to be capable of destroying unique genotypes, thereby creating the potential to threaten food security (i.e., diminishing diverse genetic material) (see Engdahl 2007) The potential size of the problem is considerable as the use of GM crops has rapidly increased over the past decade In 2007, transgenic crops (90 percent of which, it should be recalled, have genetic traits patented by Monsanto) covered about 250 million acres: more than half were located in the United States (136.5 million acres), followed by Argentina (45 million), Brazil (28.8 million), Canada (15.3 million), India (9.5 million), China (8.8 million), Paraguay (5 million), and South Africa (3.5 million) (Robin 2010, p 4) Almost all of these crops were ‘legally’ planted, but the genetic and species consequences of transfer are potentially of a huge scale especially in terms of negative ecological impact Also of concern are those crops which have not been distributed through legitimate and legal means For instance, in Mexico traditional corn has been