Farmers Warn Mexico’s GM Corn Ban Will Raise Food Prices
Mexico’s farmer associations are teaming up and pushing back through legal battles in opposition to a presidential decree to ban genetically modified (GM) maize and glyphosate in Mexico by 2024.
The Mexican government led by Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) has carried out a battle against scientific innovation in the country’s farm fields over the three years of his administration, attacking biotechnological crops and agricultural supplies. Earlier this year, AMLO enacted a decree to phase out the use of the herbicide glyphosate and the cultivation of GM corn, as well as GM corn imports, by 2024, arguing both products present health risks. He contends that boosting traditional corn supplies domestically should be prioritized.
The prohibitions on GM corn have profound implications, according to the Institute for Agriculture & Trade Policy. The immediate ban on permits for the cultivation of GM corn formalizes current restrictions ordered by Mexican courts in 2013, while the import ban is presented as part of the Lopez-Obrador administration’s goals of promoting greater food self-sufficiency in corn.
Some environmental organizations quickly praised the decree, celebrating it as the first step in Mexico achieving self-sufficiency. But while Greenpeace Mexico declared that “these are important steps in moving forward ecological production that preserves biodiversity and agrobiodiversity,” farmers were worried. They decided to push back and move the debate from their fields to the courts.
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The Mexican government led by Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) has carried out a battle against scientific innovation in the country’s farm fields over the three years of his administration, attacking biotechnological crops and agricultural supplies. Earlier this year, AMLO enacted a decree to phase out the use of the herbicide glyphosate and the cultivation of GM corn, as well as GM corn imports, by 2024, arguing both products present health risks. He contends that boosting traditional corn supplies domestically should be prioritized.
The prohibitions on GM corn have profound implications, according to the Institute for Agriculture & Trade Policy. The immediate ban on permits for the cultivation of GM corn formalizes current restrictions ordered by Mexican courts in 2013, while the import ban is presented as part of the Lopez-Obrador administration’s goals of promoting greater food self-sufficiency in corn.
Some environmental organizations quickly praised the decree, celebrating it as the first step in Mexico achieving self-sufficiency. But while Greenpeace Mexico declared that “these are important steps in moving forward ecological production that preserves biodiversity and agrobiodiversity,” farmers were worried. They decided to push back and move the debate from their fields to the courts.
Click Here to read more.