Experts: 'Mexico Ban on GM Corn Must Be Reinstated' Arturo Jimenez - La Jornada
go to original February 9, 2014

Corn has been Mexico's staple for thousands of years. Yet farmers fear that the country's hundreds of local varieties can be lost to an invasive outsider: genetically modified corn. (TheVJMovement)

TEXCOCO - A few months ago, a court granted a preventive injunction against the federal government and several multinational companies, including Monsanto, Pioneer, Dupont and Syngenta, which temporarily halted permits for commercializing transgenic corn in Mexico. A series of legal challenges were subsequently filed; currently, they are defined by five amparos [protections; injunctions].

As a way of taking stock, attorney René Sánchez Galindo spoke about the class action lawsuit filed by a group of scientists, activists and farmers from more than 20 civic organizations against the entry [into Mexican cornfields] of genetically modified [GM] products that could harm the rich diversity of native corns generated by Mexico's native cultures for more than 10,000 years.

All legal judgment is uncertain, "but my opinion is that we are going to win" (which would set a precedent for the world), added Sánchez Galindo, director of the Colectivas Association, amid applause from dozens of attendees, including many students, farmers and experts, at the Unity of Congresses of the Graduate School, where the forum "Critical Analysis of the Use of Transgenic Corn in Mexican Agriculture" was held last week.

Read the rest at Mexico Voices

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