Community | March 17, 2009 | 12 comments

GM corn trials in Mexico get green light

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JanforGore
I wonder, did Tom Vilsack of this Dept. Of Agriculture meet with their agriculture secretary?Monsanto is licking its chops to get into Mexico because they are being frozen out of Europe. Don't wonder now why Obama won't bother reworking NAFTA. This is one reason why. The only good thing about this is that individual Mexican states can still ban it, and based on the rightful opposition to it and its threat to the biodiversity of the corn varieties there I hope that happens.
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From the article:

NOTE: For what's really happening in Mexico, see the video of the interview with Silvia Ribeiro

http://www.grain.org/videos/?id=195

and the article, 'Fighting GMO contamination around the world'

http://www.grain.org/seedling/?id=575
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GM corn gets green light
Latinamerica Press, 12 March 2009
http://www.latinamericapress.org/articles.asp?art=5814

*Agriculture secretary says genetically-modified varieties of this ubiquitous crop may be used in experiments.

Mexico has revised its biosafety law to reverse a nationwide ban on genetically-modified corn, the country's most important crop and the centerpiece of the Mexican diet, and allow the varieties to be used in experiments.

In a press conference, Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Juan Rafael Elvira Quesada, said that the government would fight any illicit planting of genetically-modified corn, of which Mexico is the birthplace.

Elvira Quesada added that the changes to Biosafety and Genetically-Modified Organisms would not prohibit individual states from instating bans on transgenic corn, and under those circumstances, experiments would not be an excuse.

Mexico's agriculture secretary said there are 25 requests to plant experimental transgenic corn in the country.

Genetically-modified corn has been a contentious issue in Mexico, where there are some 200 native varieties of the staple crop.

In February, a study by scientists from the Mexico, the Netherlands and the United States found that genetically-modified corn strains did contaminate native corn varieties in southern Mexico.

The study, led by Elena Alvarez-Buylla of the National Autonomous University in Mexico, backed findings a contentious 2001 study published in the journal Nature that said the genetically-engineered corn had been detected in some of these varieties, sparking a heated debate over the study´s research methods and findings.

On Feb. 25, Mexico City's government issued a declaration that seeks to protect native corn varieties and promote ecologically-friendly and organic agriculture.

The decision was lauded by Greenpeace Mexico as a sign of commitment to protecting "Mexicans' most important grain." - Latinamerica Press.
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12 comments // GM corn trials in Mexico get green light

  • opit
  • JanforGore
  • JanforGore
    • 0
      JanforGore  
    • Thanks to the few of you here who care about this important issue for our survival. Mexico already has a drug war going on, now they will have a food war. But notice which one this government deigns to get involved in. It's ok for Monsanto however, to go into Mexico and spread their poison. No media covering that.

    • 4 years ago
  • jubal
  • darkhorsejim
    • 0
      darkhorsejim  
    • Hungry & uneducated people are easy prey & necessary in order for Monsanto to sustain its evil empire. This parasitic, powerful & profiteering company knows no bounds in its quest to dominate the world's food supply one way or another. They are nothing but toxic - illustrated by the chemical dominant products they so cheerfully peddle. A gardener’s favorite friend, the weed killing “Roundup” from the 1970s, ingratiated Monsanto as environmentally friendly throughout agricultural markets. As a consumer, you can fight back against these corporate giants by not purchasing any of their products, however enticing.

      Now the scary part. When “Roundup Ready” crops quietly came along in the 1990s carefully disguising their Genetically Modified characteristics that force farmers to then buy Monsanto’s GM seeds every year. Without the farmer’s ability to use generations of their own seed stock, nature’s healthy biodiversity was removed, opening the door to biodevastation - Frankenfoods - & the unknown, long-term health consequences that will only become evident over time in unsuspecting consumers. When freaky conditions like Morgellon’s disease sickens otherwise healthy people & coincides with this time period, we need to slam the GM door shut until the real facts are in & people can make informed decisions about their food sources.

    • 4 years ago
  • stopnoise
    • 0
      stopnoise  
    • Serious folks, if I knew I'll have to deal with soo many gov and corp jerks I would have gone to law school and be in their asses like a shark. The max we can do it is what we are already doing...to pass the news ahead and move the people into action against the Goliaths of this World.

    • 4 years ago
  • JanforGore
  • JanforGore
    • 0
      JanforGore  
    • Monsanto wants to kill the Mexican natural varieties of corn in order to dominate the market with their industrial BT pesticide corn. That way, Mexican farmers will be bound to buy their patented seed and pesticides in order to grow corn, which like India, will bring many to even deeper debt than they are already experiencing. To do this against the will of the Mexican farmers and people is criminal and evil. I hope they stand up to this invasion strongly.

      NAFTA sucks.

    • 4 years ago
  • csmonut
  • cottenpicker
    • 0
      cottenpicker  
    • HOLD YOUR GOUND MEXICO! Monsanto wants to control your land as well as they do ours.here in the good ole usa THE LAND OF THE FREE. if a bird flies over your field and drops a MONSANTO. grain of corn and it grows they can sue you and make you pay them for the patented grain.you fight them and lose all you have. during the bush yrs in the white house Monsanto owned the courts and agriculture dept. many of those posted by bush to their jobs had either worked for monsanto are were still sitting on the ceo boards.

    • 4 years ago
  • stopnoise
    • 0
      stopnoise  
    • That means that we will probably end up to eat their modified corn as great part of the US Agriculture it is controlled by Mexico and American Mexicans.

    • 4 years ago
  • JanforGore
    • 0
      JanforGore  
    • The World According To Monsanto: Part9

      Transgenic contamination in Mexico.

      Killing biodiversity is Monsanto's main goal to profits.

    • 4 years ago
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