GM food law stymied in Mexico by environmentalists
Ethical Corporation, February 14, 2005
http://www.ethicalcorp.com/content.asp?ContentID=3473

A controversial law allowing for the introduction of genetically modified (GM) corn in Mexico has been temporarily stalled by the country's Senate.

The decision on whether to ratify the revised Bio-Security Law, which has been widely denounced by environmentalists, will now take place on Tuesday 15 February.

The legislation is now in its final phase, following its successful passage through Mexico's lower house last December.

Environmental groups, such as Greenpeace, argue that the proposed Bill would pass too much control over food production into the hands of large corporations and would destroy corn diversity in Mexico.

The Bill has been dubbed the "Monsanto Law" by anti-GM activists, who have led a sustained campaign calling on senators to improve public participation processes and to introduce labelling of GM organisms.

"The issues it [the Bill] raises are about protecting native grain species to assure world food supplies and protecting local growers from domination by a handful of patent-wielding transnational seed companies", activist Talli Nauman recently wrote in an open letter to the Mexican Daily, El Universal.

Greenpeace activists staged a demonstration outside Congress on Tuesday this week, during which they pressed for more research into the social and environmental impacts of GM corn.

They claim that the Mexican government has failed to act on recommendations made in a report last November by the North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation, the arbitration body set up to oversee environmental aspect of the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Among the suggestions made in the independent report, entitled "Maize and Biodiversity: The Effects of Transgenic Maize in Mexico", are measures to improve the detection of GMOs and the protection of strains of indigenous corn.

"We are calling on senators to legislate with responsibility. Once again, we ask that they take another look at the implications of this law and that they modify it so that it serves the country and protects farmers and consumers effectively", said Alejandro Calvillo, director of Greenpeace México.

Opponents of the Bill have also been lobbying senators with the findings of a study released last month by the Washington DC-based Center for Food Safety. "Monsanto vs Small Farmers" details prosecutions taken by the US-based agribusiness Monsanto against US producers.