US Attempt to Sabotage Mexico's GMO Corn Ban Denounced as '21st-Century Imperialism'

[quaint]

CommonDreams

"The U.S.'s shameful efforts to strong-arm Mexico into accepting GE corn it has rejected is nothing short of 21st-century imperialism," Lori Ann Burd, environmental health director at the U.S.-based Center for Biological Diversity. "Our government is working tirelessly to pad the multibillion-dollar profits of domestic agribusiness corporations by pushing GE corn, even though our glyphosate-drenched GE cornfields are playing an outsized role in driving catastrophic declines in vital pollinator populations."

The group's statement came after Mexico issued a new decree earlier this week that scraps the country's original January 2024 deadline to halt imports of GMO corn for livestock feed and industrial use, a move widely seen as a concession to the U.S., which has been pressuring its southern neighbor to drop the ban since Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) first announced it in 2020.

Mexican officials have repeatedly argued that GE corn and the associated use of glyphosate pose threats to human health and pollinators, as well as domestic production.

"We have to put the right to life, the right to health, the right to a healthy environment ahead of economic and business [interests]," Víctor Suárez Carrera, Mexico's undersecretary of food and competitiveness, told Reuters in 2021.

Hoping they continue to stand firm.

[multigraincracker]

1. Like to see food from Mexico become

the new health food. Hit big ag in the wallet.

[quaint]

7. Me too, but big ag would likely have reasons to ban at the border.

"As a reminder, uncooked eggs are prohibited entry from Mexico."

[central scrutinizer]

2. There's also cultural considerations

Different varieties and colors of corn have historical, cultural significance

https://www.wbcsd.org/Overview/Panorama/Articles/Of-maize-and-men

[quaint]

4. Good article.

[MadameButterfly]

5. Mexicans care about corn and understand the ramifications while

Americans, even most Democrats are asleep on this issue. If we don't wake up it will be too late. It's easier to destroy our variety of healthy seeds than to preserve them.

What is the American pressure for? To boost the profits of a few rich men? For some numbers that look good before an election?

I've always called myself a Capitalist, but if this is what Capitalism does, I might have to reconsider.
Can we give priority to the greater good over corporate profits?

[malaise]

3. That is called an inversion of reality

I'm with Mexico - keep our natural seeds people! What more to they want. Damn!

[Celerity]

8. Revealed: Monsanto owner and US officials pressured Mexico to drop glyphosate ban

2 years ago to the day

Feb 16, 2021 (it is now Feb 16th here)

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/feb/16/revealed-monsanto-mexico-us-glyphosate-ban



Internal government emails reveal Monsanto owner Bayer AG and industry lobbyist CropLife America have been working closely with US officials to pressure Mexico into abandoning its intended ban on glyphosate, a pesticide linked to cancer that is the key ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup weedkillers.

The moves to protect glyphosate shipments to Mexico have played out over the last 18 months, a period in which Bayer was negotiating an $11bn settlement of legal claims brought by people in the US who say they developed non-Hodgkin lymphoma due to exposure to the company’s glyphosate-based products.

The pressure on Mexico is similar to actions Bayer and chemical industry lobbyists took to kill a glyphosate ban planned by Thailand in 2019. Thailand officials had also cited concerns for public health in seeking to ban the weedkiller, but reversed course after US threats about trade disruption.

So far the collaborative campaign to get the Mexican government to reverse its policy does not appear to be working. The Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has given farmers until 2024 to stop using glyphosate. On 31 December, the country published a “final decree” calling not only for the end of the use of glyphosate but also a phase-out of the planting and consumption of genetically engineered corn, which farmers often spray with glyphosate, a practice that often leaves residues of the pesticide in finished food products.

snip

[malaise]

9. Duh!

We're dealing with greedy monsters who don't give a shit about this planet or anything that lives on it

[NickB79]

6. I'm trying to figure out how they add the threat of glyphosate to humans in a ban on livestock feed

Glyphosate does not bioaccumulate, so meat from livestock fed GMO corn would have negligible levels of it present at slaughter.

But I DO understand the threat that cheap industrial US corn poses to domestic Mexican corn production. That is the biggest issue Mexico is facing, and this appears to be a veiled attempt to protecttheir domestic farmers and their heritage corn breeds against the vast farm subsidies the US government gives our farmers.

[Cha]

10. I hate GMO SHIT. I shop in Stores

that have NO GMO products.

Organic all the way.

Buenos Suerte to Mexico!