[Expanded upon from article by Natural News' Vicki Batts and Reuters article by David Alire Garcia in Mexico City]
Monsanto's plans to spread GMO seeds continue to be obstructed, at least in other nations, most notably, in Mexico, in which their ban on GMO corn.
This legal battle continues, and in the last week of January, a Mexican court upheld a 2013 ruling that followed a legal challenge on the effects GMO crops have on the environment, which temporarily put a stop on GMO corn-growing, including pilot plots.
Laura Tamayo, Monsanto's regional corporate director, commented:
"It's going to take a long while for all the evidence to be presented. I think we're talking years."
Monsanto's yellow corn imports will increase by 20+ percent the next season, because of increasing production costs and the weakening peso. Mexico is self-sufficient when it comes to the country's white corn, they rely on GMO corn that comes from the United States to feed livestock.
As reported by Reuters' David Alire Garcia in Mexico City:
Mexico is the birthplace of modern corn, domesticated about 8,000 years ago and today the planet's most-produced grain.If new U.S. President Donald Trump upends the North American Free Trade Agreement as he has threatened and U.S. supplies are not longer available, Tamayo said Mexico might have to look to other major corn producers, like Argentina and Brazil.
Prominent Mexican politicians, including former President Felipe Calderon, say the nation should consider ending purchases from U.S. corn producers in favor of Brazil and Argentina if Trump applies new taxes on Mexican exports to its northern neighbor.
"But there's no magic wand to do that," she said. It would be "disastrous" in the short term to source from new South American suppliers since that would mean higher transport and other costs, Tamayo added.
[How predictable an analysis coming from Monsanto's regional corporate director...]
Monsanto tries to expand its markets into Mexico
Monsanto several years ago submitted two applications to grow GMO corn commercially in Mexico's northwestern state Sinaloa. The region is known for being the country's largest corn-producing area, and Monsanto wanted a huge hunk of it: both applications requested 1.7 million acres of land.
Both of these applications are still pending approval, but that day may never come. While Monsanto hails itself as an agricultural business, the truth is that the company does anything but help farmers. They've been destroying real farming for the last few decades.
Ostensibly, Monsanto's primary business in Mexico is "developing and selling conventional corn seeds and vegetable seeds," but Tamayo says the company is committed to defending the so-called "benefits" of GM crops on what she calls "scientific grounds."
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