Mexico Takes a Stand Against U.S. Big Ag and GMO Corn to Protect Their Native Varieties of Mexican Corn

Back in 2014 when my online food store, Healthy Traditions, started testing all of our USDA certified organic grains for the presence of the herbicide glyphosate, which is used in RoundUp and is the world's most-used herbicide, we were shocked to find out that even our USDA certified organic grains were almost all contaminated with glyphosate, even though they were "certified organic." We found out that the NOP (National Organics Program) allowed for small amounts of pesticides and herbicides in certified organic products, and so we stopped buying grains based on organic status, and also stopped "certifying" our own products as "organic," since it now has almost no meaning anymore. Big Food wanted in on the booming organic grocery business, and they have successfully watered down U.S. organic standards over the past decade or so. Instead, we started testing all of the products we wanted to purchase for the presence of glyphosate, and if we carried a product that had a GMO equivalent in the marketplace, we also tested for the presence of GMO DNA. It started a very long process for us to find grains that were not contaminated, and in most cases, we had to look outside the U.S. to find such grains that tested clean. Corn was, by far, the hardest product to source that tested clean of GMO DNA, and we even purchased certified organic corn products off the shelves of stores like Whole Foods, that were also GMO "verified," and all the samples we tested came back positive for genetically modified DNA. We were unable to find a single supplier of organic corn in the U.S. who had corn that tested clean. We finally found a supplier down in Central Mexico, in a Province that at that time had banned the planting of U.S. GMO corn, that finally tested clean of GMO DNA, and we have been selling corn from that region ever since, for almost 10 years now. Now, Mexico has decided to ban U.S. GMO corn nationwide, as well as ban the use of glyphosate, and the U.S. and Canada are trying to bully Mexico into continuing to import GMO corn.

Mexico’s Proposed Ban on GM Corn Angers the U.S. and Canada

Certain states in Mexico have banned the planting and cultivation of genetically modified corn from the U.S. in recent years, in order to preserve heirloom varieties of corn (maize) that have existed in Mexico for thousands of years. In 2022, Mexico proposed a ban on imports of GM corn as a country, and now the U.S. and Canada are teaming up to protest and to try and force Mexico to keep importing GM corn. The AP reported last week that Canada had joined the US in their trade dispute against Mexico’s proposed ban on GM corn. Canada’s Ministry of Agriculture and Agri-Food said in a statement: “Canada shares the concerns of the U.S. that Mexico’s measures are not scientifically supported and have the potential to unnecessarily disrupt trade in the North American market.” For U.S. and Canadian politicians to state that the claims that GM corn are hazardous to one's health "are not scientifically supported" is similar to saying that "the science is settled" when it comes to the alleged "safety" of vaccines. It is a total lie. The science showing how dangerous genetically modified food is, including the use of glyphosate herbicides sprayed on GM crops, is ABUNDANT. But similar to studies showing the toxicity and harms of vaccines, these studies are almost always censored, or if they get published, are usually later retracted due to the pressure of Big Ag interests.

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.