Mexico bans GMO effective immediatly
Posted by Jean-Marc Abela
In Deconstructing Dinner Caravan GMO Mexico
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Well, this is big news for us as our film opens in a cornfield in the mountains of Oaxaca, where corn originated.
After Peru last year, Mexican authorities have placed a ban on genetically modified corn. Multinationals like Monsanto will not be able to sell their corn within the Mexican borders.
What is encouraging is that this came from lawsuits filed against the Mexican federal goverment and the biotech companies by community based organizations concerned with GMO contamination.
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.”
Such great news for us who visited Oaxaca at a time where they where being bombarded by GMO corn. I remember when we found ourselves in those small isolated communities in the Mountains and giving workshops, with the help of our friend Lale who explained in a very clear way what Genetic Modification was, and how it affects them. Proud that Stefan was so diligent, finding images to explain this technology. These scenes never made it into the final film, but perhaps one day we’ll be able to share them as deleted scenes. In the mean time, we might think we played a very small part in this big scheme, but mostly simply happy for the good news.
To read more on this court ruling check out: http://www.care2.com/causes/mexico-bans-gmo-corn-effective-immediately.html#ixzz2icqAYvKZ
