Over 100 Organizations Demand That Mexico Resist Pressure To Backtrack On GM Corn Ban

Today, leaders from Mexico, the United States and Canada are gathered at the North American Leaders’ Summit, where, among other issues, they will debate the timeline and scope of Mexico’s ban on the cultivation and import of genetically-modified (GM) corn. More than 100 organizations from the three countries delivered a letter to Mexican senators. In the letter, peasant organizations, farmers, environmentalists, unions, churches, social activists, academics and journalists demand that governments prioritize the production of biodiversity and the right to food sovereignty and security over corporate interests.

The U.S. government, transnational corporations and agribusinesses that benefit from GM corn and biocides, such as glyphosate, are pressuring the Mexican government to renounce its right to food sovereignty and walk away from the international commitments assumed by the three governments in the strategic plan for the implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity from 2022-2030. As outlined in the letter, the demands that Mexico reject its stance on GM corn are at odds with three of the four goals of the framework.

Signatories to the trinational letter reject these pressures; instead, in each of the three countries, civil society groups express their support for the production of non-GMO corn and other products free of glyphosate and other biotoxins, as well as a policy of fair and sustainable trade.