Mexico’s Decision to Ban GMO Corn and Glyphosate Has Rocked the Agribusiness World
Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador quietly rocked the agribusiness world with his New Year’s Eve decree to phase out use of the herbicide glyphosate and the cultivation of genetically modified corn. His administration sent an even stronger aftershock two weeks later, clarifying that the government would also phase out GM corn imports in three years and the ban would include not just corn for human consumption but yellow corn destined primarily for livestock. The bold policy moves fulfill a campaign promise by Mexico’s populist president, whose agricultural policies have begun to favor Mexican producers, particularly small-scale farmers. The prohibitions on genetically modified corn, which appear toward the end of the decree, have more profound implications. Comments by Brian Shilhavy, Editor, Health Impact News: "This is welcome news from Mexico. For years, my company Healthy Traditions, has tried to work with small-scale farmers in the U.S. to try and grow corn not contaminated with GMO DNA and the glyphosate herbicide. But no matter how hard our farmers tried to grow organic, non-contaminated corn, within one season it always tested positive for GMO DNA, as Big Ag's massive corn operations always contaminated their fields no matter how hard they tried to shield them. We did not sell any corn products for several years, as even organic corn products that were advertised as "GMO Free" tested positive for GMOs when we pulled their products off of the shelves of grocery stores. We finally found a source of Mexican corn in Central Mexico, where a ban on GMO corn existed, and that is the corn we have been purchasing and selling to the public for the past several years now, as it consistently has tested negative for GMOs and glyphosate. It is a true open-pollinated heirloom corn variety, representing the rich culture that exists in Mexico for their love of corn "maiz." These varieties, some thousands of years old, would soon be lost to the modern GMO crops without this protection.