Will Mexico follow get the idea on Monsanto?

[Studio del Sol]

I just learned that agro-chemical companies and their buddies in US Congress were not able to sneak through an extension of the Monsanto Protection Act, which which allows big agricultural and biotec corporations to ignore food safety regulations and sell genetically engineered foods even after a court order to stop.

Apparently, hundreds of thousands of Americans signed petitions demanding Congress reject the Monsanto Protection Act when it expires on Sept. 30, 2013.. The pressure worked. Today the Senate removed the Monsanto Protection Act from the must-pass budget bill.

Now it goes to the House.

I know Monsanto has its long arm stretching toward Mexico and I hope the Mexican public is up to date on the problems with them.

[ComputerGuy]

Fantastic bit of news. Hooray for the people. May Monsanto and others like them drown in their own useless seed.

[CSOKI]

This is great news. I hope Mexico will not give in to pressure from Monsanto.

[More Liana]

Mexico has already given in to pressure** from Monsanto. Thousands of hectareas of genetically modified corn (and possibly other plants) have been sown here.

**accepted huge amounts of money

[CSOKI]

So, More Liana, business a usual.

[Studio del Sol]

Too bad they haven't had the motivation to read what has happened with the Monsanto seed in India.

[valbogyo]

There is going to be a parade, in Chapala, protesting against Monsanto at the time of the next world wide march. I know its coming up, but I do not know the date. There is a group of people organizing it. The women at the front table at the Organic Market are involved. I will try and find details and post it here. There are also flyers in Spanish you can hand out to your neighbors so that they might get involved.

[tomgates]

The US, Canada and others are producing more grain per acre than ever before thanks to agribusiness, including Monsanto and Dupont's Pioneer, and research at agriculture universities. I am sure poor people all over the world are thankful they have food to eat.

[valbogyo]

The US, Canada and others are producing more grain per acre than ever before thanks to agribusiness, including Monsanto and Dupont's Pioneer, and research at agriculture universities. I am sure poor people all over the world are thankful they have food to eat.

I know there is that aspect too. Creating crops that resist drought and fungus was a noble idea and it was not all about money. I think one of the big problems is that the impact, of using GMOs and a variety of chemicals to improve yield, on the environment is just not understood .

. The crisis with bees is a direct result of monocrops, pesticides and fungicides. Yes, production may increase initially and for decades, but then something like this happens. No bees, no food. It is very, very serious and a lot of scientists, around the world, are beginning to suggest that we are messing with nature without understanding the long term consequences. I never really understood until I watched Queen of the Sun, a documentary about the world wide crisis of bees disappearing. I really recommend seeing it. I think that it will be shown at a local venue next month.

[More Liana]

Please read this English-language article by Alfredo Acedo, a Mexico-based journalist. Please...it will help you understand the various problems that genetically modified corn brings to Mexico. It's not just about the joys of increased yield.

http://truth-out.org/news/item/12925-the-fight-for-corn

[valbogyo]

Please read this English-language article by Alfredo Acedo, a Mexico-based journalist. Please...it will help you understand the various problems that genetically modified corn brings to Mexico. It's not just about the joys of increased yield.

http://truth-out.org/news/item/12925-the-fight-for-corn

Wow.... that is a great article. And here I was.... just worried about the impact on the environment. Well...... its off to a potluck, celebrating the wonderful Corn of Mexico!

[Studio del Sol]

Thanks Liana....

Tom Gates and others who think it's a matter of feeding people, please read this article as well.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-seeds-of-suicide-how-monsanto-destroys-farming/5329947

It's written by Dr. Vandana Shiva, currently based in Delhi, India. She has authored more than 20 books and over 500 papers in leading scientific and technical journals.She was trained as a physicist and received her Ph.D. in physics from the University of Western Ontario, Canada. She was awarded the Right Livelihood Award in 1993.

[tomgates]

You can always find some expert that supports your view. I am just looking at how yields per acre have grown 3 fold in the past 75 years. There are many reasons for this. Seed companies are just one. Technology is the big driver, whether it makes 24x7 driverless GPS tractors possible or GMO seeds that repeal pests or deals with drought. It is one thing for rich people to stand on their high horse and quite another for millions of poor people who now have food to eat. Don't even get me going on the issue of the US that takes food (corn) out of the food chain and makes ethanol and forces people to use it.

[Canamex]

You can always find some expert that supports your view.[....] It is one thing for rich people to stand on their high horse and quite another for millions of poor people who now have food to eat.....]

I'd rather take seriously "some expert" and a myriad of such than to trust in the opinion of someone who's far less qualified.

Where are the millions of poor who now have food to eat? In Africa and India, the poor are still poor, there are still famines, and poor farmers commit suicide thanks to the debt imposed on them by Monsanto. And the 1% just get all that much richer every damn year. Do you really think this grand experiment in GMO has been intended for the good of the poor, or is it just another social, biological experiment perpetrated ON the poor?

[mudgirl]

So it's okay to feed the poor poison food because at least it is food? So it fills their bellies today, only for them to die of cancer and other not-yet-discovered illnesses contracted as a result of eating said genetically modified foods at some point down the road, this is okay?

[snowyco]

You can always find some expert that supports your view. I am just looking at how yields per acre have grown 3 fold in the past 75 years. There are many reasons for this. Seed companies are just one. Technology is the big driver, whether it makes 24x7 driverless GPS tractors possible or GMO seeds that repeal pests or deals with drought. It is one thing for rich people to stand on their high horse and quite another for millions of poor people who now have food to eat. Don't even get me going on the issue of the US that takes food (corn) out of the food chain and makes ethanol and forces people to use it.

Yes, farm output has grown dramatically over the past 75 years, but that is not attributed to Monsanto's GMO-herbicide tolerant crops. Multiple good studies have shown that Monsanto's claims of overall increased crop yields are false, especially for Mexico and India. When the 3 year and 5 year aggregate total harvest numbers are added up, crop yields for Monsanto for their GMO-Monsanto herbicide tolerant corn, soy, and cotton seeds are actually the slightly net lower than for the previous non-GMO seeds in real world conditions. The ease of spraying Monsanto herbicides onto Monsanto GMO herbicide tolerant plants is the attractive aspect for American and Canadian farmers, because the Monsanto GMO crop yields are not actually higher.

The added costs of buying more expensive Monsanto seeds, no fertile seeds allowed to plant the next crop, and the interwoven integral expensive Monsanto herbicides and pesticides required by the Monsanto GMO plants, plus the high interest borrowing that Monsanto fosters in Mexico and India to pay for the more expensive seeds and chemicals, actually leads to net lower revenues that become financial losses for farmers in Mexico and India.

Keep the banner of reduced hunger through increased crop outputs from productive plant breeding, but don't try to wrap Monsanto's non-factual claims in that same banner. Years of facts, especially from Mexico and India, simply do not support Monsanto's advertising claims.

[traderspoc]

research shows that the newer wheat they are sowing is higher in gluten,

more people are ending up with gluten intolerance and do not know it,

a little stomach ache here and there and think nothing of it.

until it becomes chronic after 20 years.

[snowyco]

The GMO crops also include new never-before-seen proteins and antigens that are causing new allergies - since our immune systems were not conditioned to eat Bacillus thuringiensis biological pesticides. Can we really expect that no harm comes from intentionally eating pesticides that are locked into the grain's structure, and should we not expect problems from eating never-before-seen allergy causing antigenic proteins that are locked-into the DNA of these GMO foods? You can't wash this stuff off, nor soak it away with cleaning regimens.

[Mad_Max]

You can always find some expert that supports your view.

Some experts?

64 countries around the world ban the importation of GMO crops

Maybe they know something that you don't

And http://www.globalresearch.ca/monsanto-roundup-glyphosate-weedkiller-in-our-food-and-water/5339244

“Historians may look back and write about how willing we are to sacrifice our children and jeopardize future generations with a massive experiment that is based on false promises and flawed science just to benefit the bottom line of a commercial enterprise.” So said Don Huber in referring to the use of glyphosate and genetically modified crops. Huber was speaking at Organic Connections conference in Regina, Canada, late 2012.

Then there is the soil itself and the biodiversity of the environment that glyphosate damages

And the poor people? Now need to buy more fertilizer, more seeds. The only ones getting rich are the companies like monsanto.

The fact that they are allowed in the US shows me how much government corruption exists. I can't imagine why a farmer should be sued because the wind blew GMO's on his field. Just shows what a really good job that Monstanto's legal team is doing - and the pp job our government is doing http://rt.com/usa/monsanto-sue-gmo-vermont-478/

• Monsanto is no stranger to the American legal system and have forced competing farm after farm to be shut down or bought out by bringing lawsuits against the little guy throughout their history. Between 1997 and 2010, Monsanto’s legal team tried to file nearly 150 lawsuits against independent farmers, often for allegations that their patented GMO-seeds had somehow managed to be carried onto unlicensed farms. Often those farms have been unable to fight against Monsanto’s mega-lawyers and have been forced to fold in response. The Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association tried taking Monsanto to court earlier this year to keep them from following similar suits, but a Federal District Court judge in Manhattan shut down their plea. The group has since filed an appeal.

Funny video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ho2H7b1tUgQ

[El Saltos]

Mexican Court says "NO" to GMO corn. See Friday's "The News" from DF.

[Mad_Max]

Wow - wonder if really means no..............http://ejfood.blogspot.mx/2013/10/geo-watch-mexico-bans-transgenic-corn.html

Here is one article:

Judge rules that GMOs are imminent threat

MONSANTO, PIONEER, PROHIBITED FROM MARKETING TRANSGENIC SEED

Devon G. Peña | Seattle, WA | October 11, 2013

An October 10 press release with Mexico City byline announces the banning of genetically-engineered corn in Mexico. According to the group that issued the press release, La Coperacha, a federal judge has ordered Mexico’sSAGARPA (Secretaría de Agricultura, Ganadería, Desarrollo Rural, Pesca, y Alimentación), which is Mexico’s Secretary of Agriculture, and SEMARNAT(Secretaría de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales), which is equivalent of the EPA, to immediately “suspend all activities involving the planting of transgenic corn in the country and end the granting of permission for experimental and pilot commercial plantings”.

The unprecedented ban was granted by the Twelfth Federal District Court for Civil Matters of Mexico City. Judge Jaime Eduardo Verdugo J. wrote the opinion and cited “the risk of imminent harm to the environment” as the basis for the decision. The judge’s ruling also ruled that multinationals like Monsanto and Pioneer are banned from the release of transgenic maize in the Mexican countryside” as long as collective action lawsuits initiated by citizens, farmers, scientists, and civil society organizations are working their way through the judicial system.

The decision was explained during a press conference in Mexico City yesterday by members of the community-based organizations that sued federal authorities and companies introducing transgenic maize into Mexico. The group, Acción Colectiva, is led by Father Miguel Concha of the Human Rights Center Fray Francisco de Vittoria; Victor Suarez of ANEC (National Association of Rural Commercialization Entertprises); Dr. Mercedes Lopéz of Vía Organica; and Adelita San Vicente, a teacher and member of Semillas de Vida, a national organization that has been involved in broad-based social action projects to protect Mexico’s extraordinary status as a major world center of food crop biodiversity.

Some of the native maize varieties from Oaxaca, Mexico

According to the press release, Acción Colectiva [Collective Action] aims to achieve absolute federal declaration of the suspension of the introduction of transgenic maize in all its various forms – including experimental and pilot commercial plantings – in Mexico, “which is the birthplace of corn in the world”.

This ruling marks a milestone in the long struggle of citizen demands for a GMO-free country, acknowledged Rene Sanchez Galindo, legal counsel for the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, adding that the ruling has serious enforcement provisions and includes the possibility of “criminal charges for the authorities responsible for allowing the introduction of transgenic corn in our country”.

Father Miguel Concha said the judge’s decision reflects a commitment to respect the Precautionary Principle expressed in various international treaties and statements of human rights. Concha emphasized that the government is obliged to protect the human rights of Mexicans against the economic interests of big business.The lawsuit seeks to protect the “human right to save and use the agrobiodiversity of native landraces from the threats posed by GMO maize”, said the human rights advocate.

The class action lawsuit is supported by scientific evidence from studies that have – since 2001 – documented the contamination of Mexico’s native corn varieties by transgenes from GMO corn, principally the varieties introduced by Monsanto’s Roundup ready lines and the herbicide-resistant varieties marketed by Pioneer and Bayer CropScience. The collection of the growing body of scientific research on the introgression of transgenes into Mexico’s native corn genome has been a principal goal and activity of the national campaign, Sin Maíz, No Hay Paíz [Without Corn, There Is No Country].

Posted Yesterday by

[More Liana]

Posted earlier in La Cocina, but let's get it here, too:

http://ecowatch.com/2013/10/16/mexico-bans-gmo-corn-effective-immediately/

[Studio del Sol]

I'm glad to read the recent developments. I was afraid it was falling on deaf ears. Worse, ignorant ones.