Monsanto banned from Mexico

[PoliticalNick]

Just when you think there’s no winning against the biotech industry, news out of Mexico City shows that all is not lost. After years of deliberation, a Mexico judge has placed an indefinite ban on genetically-engineered corn. Effective immediately, companies like Monsanto and DuPont/Pioneer will no longer be allowed to plant or sell their corn within the country’s borders.

The decision comes nearly two years after Care2 reported that the Mexican government had put Monsanto’s GE corn on hold, citing the need for more tests.

“Corn is a staple food crop in Mexico, intricately intertwined with the country’s cuisine, history, and culture. Authorities are concerned that Monsanto’s genetically modified corn will contaminate native species, and could cause both health and environmental issues,” Care2 reported at the time.

Now, it appears that Mexican authorities have finally made their decision. According to Environmental Food and Justice, Judge Jaime Eduardo Verdugo J. of the Twelfth Federal District Court for Civil Matters of Mexico City ruled that the genetically-engineered corn posed ”the risk of imminent harm to the environment.” He also ordered Mexico’s Secretary of Agriculture and SEMARNAT (Secretaría de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales), equivalent to the U.S. 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 ruling means that Monsanto and other biotech companies will be required to halt all activities in the country, giving collective action lawsuits initiated by citizens, farmers, scientists and other concerned parties a chance to work their way through the judicial system.

According to a local 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 is a huge victory for the Mexican people, and provides at least temporary protection for the 20,000 varieties of corn grown in Mexico and Central America. The decision comes just days after thousands of people in over 50 countries participated in the global March Against Monsanto



Read more: Mexico Bans GMO Corn, Effective Immediately | Care2 Causes


Hopefully more countries, including Canada, will follow suit before there is a complete monopoly on food and seeds.

 

[Walter]

And Mexico continues to keep the poor poor and the down-trodden down-trodden.

 

[bill barilko]

And Mexico continues to keep the poor poor and the down-trodden down-trodden.

As someone who's travelled, worked and lived in Mexico and who is fluent in Spanish I can say with confidence you have absolutely NFI what you are talking about.

 

[Walter]

As someone who's travelled, worked and lived in Mexico and who is fluent in Spanish I can say with confidence you have absolutely NFI what you are talking about.

I forgot, Mexico has the highest standard of living in the world. My mistake.

 

[CDNBear]

As someone who's travelled, worked and lived in Mexico and who is fluent in Spanish I can say with confidence you have absolutely NFI what you are talking about.

Really?

He's pretty close, considering Mexico has difficulty meeting the corn demands of its own people.

Maybe if you actually went there, and not just visited it on the net, you wouldn't look so silly.

 

[SLM]

I forgot, Mexico has the highest standard of living in the world. My mistake.

Are those the only two options? Completely down trodden or the highest standard of living in the world?

 

[CDNBear]

Are those the only two options? Completely down trodden or the highest standard of living in the world?

No, but Mexico has a large "poor" population and dificulty producing enough corn to feed them.

That would be why Mexican farmers were working with Monsanto on test crops.

 

[SLM]

No, but Mexico has a large "poor" population and dificulty producing enough corn to feed them.

That would be why Mexican farmers were working with Monsanto on test crops.

I know they have a large poor population, there's gotta be a reason so many attempt the Rio Grande crossing. It's not just for kicks.

It just struck me as funny, from one extreme option to the complete opposite, like that's all there ever is.

 

[PoliticalNick]

That would be why Mexican farmers were working with Monsanto on test crops.

Not anymore!

I don't mind so much if there is some proven benefit to GMO foods. I have a problem with the Monsantos of the world using GMO patents to gain a monopoly on the worlds food supply and some of the unsavory tactics they have used in their efforts to get to that point like suing farmers under patent law when cross-pollination through natural causes have spread GMO product into non-GMO farm fields.

 

[CDNBear]

Not anymore!

It's not permanent.

I don't mind so much if there is some proven benefit to GMO foods.

There is. Especially in places like Mexico.

I have a problem with the Monsantos of the world using GMO patents to gain a monopoly on the worlds food supply and some of the unsavory tactics they have used in their efforts to get to that point like suing farmers under patent law when cross-pollination through natural causes have spread GMO product into non-GMO farm fields.

So do I.

I hope they can work it out.

 

[Goober]

Not anymore!

I don't mind so much if there is some proven benefit to GMO foods.

Here you go.
WHO | Micronutrient deficiencies

Vitamin A deficiency- Death - blindness.

Vitamin A Deficiency
The importance of micronutrients

The most damaging micronutrient deficiencies in the world are the consequence of low dietary intake of iron, vitamin A, iodine and zinc. Vitamin A deficiency (VAD) is prevalent among the poor whose diets are based mainly on rice or other carbohydrate-rich, micronutrient-poor calory sources. Rice does not contain any β-carotene (provitamin A), which their body could then convert into vitamin A. Dependence on rice as the predominant food source, therefore, necessarily leads to VAD, most severely affecting small children and pregnant women. In 2012 the World Health Organization reported that about 250 million preschool children are affected by VAD, and that providing those children with vitamin A could prevent about a third of all under-five deaths, which amounts to up to 2.7 million children that could be saved from dying unnecessarily.
few salient facts

An estimated 250 million preschool children are vitamin A deficient and it is likely that in vitamin A deficient areas a substantial proportion of pregnant women is vitamin A deficient.
An estimated 250 000 to 500 000 vitamin A-deficient children become blind every year, half of them dying within 12 months of losing their sight.

 

[PoliticalNick]

Here you go.
WHO | Micronutrient deficiencies

Vitamin A deficiency- Death - blindness.

Vitamin A Deficiency
The importance of micronutrients

The most damaging micronutrient deficiencies in the world are the consequence of low dietary intake of iron, vitamin A, iodine and zinc. Vitamin A deficiency (VAD) is prevalent among the poor whose diets are based mainly on rice or other carbohydrate-rich, micronutrient-poor calory sources. Rice does not contain any β-carotene (provitamin A), which their body could then convert into vitamin A. Dependence on rice as the predominant food source, therefore, necessarily leads to VAD, most severely affecting small children and pregnant women. In 2012 the World Health Organization reported that about 250 million preschool children are affected by VAD, and that providing those children with vitamin A could prevent about a third of all under-five deaths, which amounts to up to 2.7 million children that could be saved from dying unnecessarily.
few salient facts

An estimated 250 million preschool children are vitamin A deficient and it is likely that in vitamin A deficient areas a substantial proportion of pregnant women is vitamin A deficient.
An estimated 250 000 to 500 000 vitamin A-deficient children become blind every year, half of them dying within 12 months of losing their sight.

That would be great info if we were talking about rice instead of corn.

 

[Goober]

That would be great info if we were talking about rice instead of corn.

Not anymore!

I don't mind so much if there is some proven benefit to GMO foods. I have a problem with the Monsantos of the world using GMO patents to gain a monopoly on the worlds food supply and some of the unsavory tactics they have used in their efforts to get to that point like suing farmers under patent law when cross-pollination through natural causes have spread GMO product into non-GMO farm fields.

Ahem- Yes, we were talking GMO's

 

[PoliticalNick]

Ahem- Yes, we were talking GMO's

So is there a strain of GMO rice that has enhanced vitamin A content? I would also ask if you approve of a corporation gaining a monopoly on the world's supply of rice through patent on a GMO strain?

 

[CDNBear]

So is there a strain of GMO rice that has enhanced vitamin A content?

Yep, and also a corn strain.

 

[Goober]

So is there a strain of GMO rice that has enhanced vitamin A content? I would also ask if you approve of a corporation gaining a monopoly on the world's supply of rice through patent on a GMO strain?

I answered the critical part of the question you posed. Were you surprised about the effects of a lack of micro nutrients?
Should they have legal protection after spending tons of money - yes.
Should it have a time limit- yes.

 

[PoliticalNick]

I answered the critical part of the question you posed. Were you surprised about the effects of a lack of micro nutrients?

I'm not a nutritionist and I eat a balanced diet so I don't know and haven't had much cause to care.

Should they have legal protection after spending tons of money - yes.

They should be able to sell what they produce. Claiming rights on the seeds and pollen of a living plant is ludicrous. I might as well claim a patent on a pine cone and sue every logging outfit in N America.

Should it have a time limit- yes.

You bet it should. The time limit is when that seed becomes a plant, then it belongs to mother nature and whoever owns the land it grows on.

That is where the big issue lies. They don't have a patent on the seed or the plant they have a patent on the DNA. To me that is the most abhorrent application of patent law you could ever imagine. In the past when farmers cross-pollinated or grafted to make a new strain of a plant they could sell seeds or plants but were never allowed to patent either. Just because Monsato does it in a lab in a more efficient manner does't make it any different than the farmer crossing red roses with white ones to get pink roses.

 

[mentalfloss]

Aren't GMOs scientifically proven to be kosher?

(if not halal)

That is where the big issue lies. They don't have a patent on the seed or the plant they have a patent on the DNA. To me that is the most abhorrent application of patent law you could ever imagine.

So you're not debating the validity of GMO foods, you just don't like the monopoly in that industry.

 

[damngrumpy]

I am a farmer and I am opposed to GMO products. The reason in my case is
market share. The public is not in favour of it and the first to allow GMO apples
will lose their market share that simple. Yes there is a lot of product out there I
agree with that. Once the laws stipulate labelling there is going to be a huge
backlash to the concept. There is an old saying, it ain't over till the fat lady sings.
She ain't even warmed up her vocal chords yet. Mexico is only the beginninig.
The problem is not just with GMO products, its the fact that the cmpanies have
lied so often they have no credibility.

 

[PoliticalNick]

So you're not debating the validity of GMO foods, you just don't like the monopoly in that industry.

I do question the health/harm in GMO foods mainly because I don't trust corporations like Monsanto and there isn't a lot of evidence yet as to the risks vs benefits. I am definitely against anyone or any corporation holding a patent or monopoly on the food supply. I am against all monopolies except the game and only support that if I'm winning. ;-)