MEXICAN JUDGE ORDERS NO COMMERCIAL DISTRIBUTION OF GENETICALLY MODIFIED CORN

By Nadin Abbott

October 20, 2013 (San Diego) The 12^th District Judge for Civil Matters in Mexico City has ordered no further commercial distribution of genetically modified (GMO) corn for the moment. The Judicial order temporarily prohibits “the suspension of permits, release and pilot field studies and commercialization of transgenic corn.”  

The judge cited “risk of imminent harm to the environment” as the basis for his ruling, which bans multinational corporations such as Monsanto from releasing GMO corn into the Mexican countryside as long as lawsuits filed by citizens, farmers, scientists and other groups are working their way through the court system.

Health Impact News reports that Mexico has over 100 varieties of corn threatened by GMO crops from the U.S.  Since 2001, studies have found Mexico’s native corn has been contaminated by GMO strains such as Monsanto’s Round-up Ready corn, which contains an herbicide spliced into the seed, Food First has reported.

The court action results from a lawsuit brought by Adelita San Vicente Tello of Seeds for Life (Semillas para la Vida) and 52 others, among them scientist Antonio Turrent Fernandez, President of Scientific Union for Society (Unión de Científicos Comprometidos con la Sociedad (UCCS).

GreenPeace Mexico stated on its web site that “the greatest achievement is that the Court is now part of the debate of the benefits or damage caused by transgenic (GMO) corn.”  Use of GMO corn encourages monopoly practices and damages individual farmers, also leading to control over food by transnational corporations, the group contends.

Mexico’s Secretariat of Agriculture (Secretaria de Agricultura) has warned that increased food demands will require the introduction of GMOs, however.

The debate over GMO corn and other crops is not over in Mexico. The order is a temporary halt in the commercial use of GMOs. But, it adds to the growing debate in the United States as well as Mexico over the impacts of GMO crops, which have already been banned in much of Europe.