01/27/2023 / By Ethan Huff
The biotechnology industry, which largely controls United States government policy, is livid with Mexico over the country’s plans to phase out all imports of genetically modified (GMO) corn.
Since the U.S. is a GMO powerhouse, the move represents a serious threat to the profit streams of Big Biotech. Because of this, American authorities are expressing “grave concerns” about the direction Mexico is taking as it seeks to preserve clean, biotech-free food for its citizens.
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is very anti-GMO, having announced in 2020 plans to completely phase out all imports of GMO corn and anything tainted with glyphosate (Roundup) herbicide by the year 2024. That date was recently extended to 2025.
“We made it clear today that if this issue is not resolved, we will consider all options, including taking formal steps to enforce our rights under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA),” threatened office of U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Katherine Tai in a statement to Mexico.
“Mexico’s proposed approach, which is not grounded in science, still threatens to disrupt billions of dollars in bilateral agricultural trade, cause serious economic harm to U.S. farmers and Mexican livestock producers, and stifle important innovations needed to help producers respond to pressing climate and food security challenges.”
(Related: In 2013, Mexico banned all plantings of GMO corn throughout the country.)
America’s goal seems to be to genetically engineer everything, while Mexico is working towards keeping a clean food supply the way nature intended. This disagreement between the two neighboring countries is causing U.S. interests to have a meltdown over the prospect of losing trade opportunities with Mexico.
It turns out that most of the world wants nothing to do with America’s transgenic poison “crops,” which are tainted with chemical herbicides and pesticides, not to mention foreign genetics that render the product toxic for consumption.
Obrador and other Mexican authorities seem to recognize this fact while American authorities continue to issue threats against Mexico that the country either comply or face the consequences of U.S. ire.
Every year, some 17 million tons of mostly GMO yellow corn is sent from the U.S. to Mexico. The majority of that corn is fed to animals because Mexican standards do not allow transgenic corn to be fed to humans.
For the time being, transgenic corn will continue to flow from the U.S. into Mexico to feed animals, but even that is scheduled to end by the year 2025. The U.S. is trying to stop this by forcing Mexico to abide by its standards instead.
U.S. officials are “making it crystal clear,” according to Reuters, that Mexico will have to abide by the USMCA commitments it is bound by. This threat, said Tom Haag, president of the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA), “is a significant development and good news for corn growers.”
The biotechnology industry group BIO also said that it appreciates U.S. efforts to bully Mexico into “maintain[ing] a science-based risk regulatory system,” to quoted Beth Ellikidis, vice president for agriculture and environment.
“There is a far more sinister plan here than most people realize,” wrote a commenter at Natural News. “The seeds they send these countries are designed not to re-germinate. One crop and ooops, hmm the corn won’t grow again. This happened in India causing mass farmer suicides and starvation.”
“The legislature should have never been signed to allow seed patents. I don’t know what that drunk Bush and his cronies were thinking,” this person added about how the Bush family dynasty helped pave the way for GMO crops in the U.S. “You can’t patent plants, why would they allow seed patents?”
The latest news about the fight against GMOs can be found at GMO.news.
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Tagged Under:
Animal Feed, ban, Big AG, Big Biotech, big government, bullies, crybullies, food supply, GMO, Mexico, seed patents, toxins, transgenic corn, US government, USMCA, world agriculture, yellow corn
This article may contain statements that reflect the opinion of the author