Mexico is threatened by sowing of GMO maize. Monsanto would like to expand its GM maize crops here, but farmers are opposed. Up to now, the only genetically modified crops allowed in Mexico have been cotton and soy, as the latest map of GMOs in the world demonstrates.
He is about to end up run over, his mother saves him
Il Mexico it is threatened by the sowing of GMO maize. Monsanto he would like to expand his GM maize crops here, but the farmers are opposed. Up to now in Mexico the only genetically modified crops officially admitted have been cotton and soy, as shown by the latest map of GMOs in the world.
Corn is the symbol of Mexico. Here we find the original corn which for centuries has been the fulcrum of nutrition and food culture for the population of an entire country. Now Monsanto's economic aims risk endangering Mexican traditions and the economy.
The issue of GM maize in Mexico has landed in court and it seems that transgenic maize will not be sown at least for the moment. But the peasants fear the power of multinationals of GMOs and the game is not over yet.
Second Victor Manuel Toledo Manzur, researcher at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), if Mexicans lose control over corn, they will forever lose their identity.
In his opinion, the large companies of the transgenic seeds constitute a danger to health, food and due to the environmental pollution they cause. Toledo explained this a few weeks ago on the occasion of the presentation of the book "The innovations, farmers and food security of corn", which he wrote in collaboration with the expert in agriecology Miguel Angel Damian Huato.
In his speech, Toledo stressed that multinationals like Monsanto who intend to introduce GM maize in Mexico use cultivation methods and production processes that poison the environment and ecosystems. Unfortunately, these multinationals have received the support of the Mexican government and the Secretariat for Agriculture and the Environment, which should instead be concerned with preserving the country's natural resources and culture.
Toledo fears that Monsanto will win the legal battles underway in Mexico for the sowing of GMO corn and that therefore a new transgenic cultivation will soon be officially introduced in the country.
The book just published by the Mexican experts aims to be a contribution to the defense of the original Mexican corn against the empire of genetically modified corn. Toledo pointed out that 60% of the food consumed in the world is produced by small farmers. In his opinion, it is not true that industrial agriculture, or worse, transgenic agriculture, is the solution to world hunger. Using large machinery, pesticides, agrochemicals and GMOs is not a guarantee to feed the world population, especially since the distribution of resources is still based on strong inequality.
FAO itself has now recognized that over half of the food consumed by 7 billion human beings in the world comes from the work of small farmers and peasants. It is therefore necessary to reassess the importance of small-scale local food production.
Mexico risks losing and forgetting the roots of its history, its culture and its memory linked to traditional agricultural systems. Corn grown in Mexico is very important for rural society, food and biodiversity. Transgenic crops, on the other hand, praise monoculture, the industrialization of agriculture and the use of agrochemical products that are harmful to health and the environment.
The hope is that he will win in Mexico the resistance front to the multinationals of GMOs who would like to introduce genetically modified corn in the country. Why should the Mexican government favor the profits of GMO multinationals rather than defending the traditions and culture of their own people?
Marta Albè
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