Expected Ban on Mexican GM Corn Fetches Praise — and Worry Over Imports

This month, Mexico’s two legislative houses are expected to approve an amendment that will prohibit the cultivation of transgenic corn in the country’s Constitution, a historic decision that farmers’ organizations and leaders of the national agricultural industry are applauding — though not fully celebrating.

While the constitutional change proposed by President Claudia Sheinbaum will ban nationwide production of transgenic corn in Mexico, the import and human consumption of genetically modified corn will still be permitted in the country as will the use of the herbicide glyphosate. In December, an independent panel ruled in favor of the U.S., stating that Mexico’s efforts to ban the importation of transgenic corn on human health grounds weren’t scientifically supported.

This continued import of large-scale U.S. genetically modified corn is considered to be a threat by local experts, who assert the transgenic seeds — as well as the herbicide glyphosate commonly used in their production — represent a threat to native species of the crop that have existed for thousands of years and continue to be produced by small and Indigenous farmers nationwide.