As a trade tribunal prepares to rule in favor of a U.S. complaint that Mexico's restrictions on genetically modified corn are an unfair trade practice not based on science, Mexico's national science agency has published it compendium of evidence of the risks of GM corn and the herbicide glyphosate to public health and the environment. It should be mandatory reading for anyone who claims Mexico's policies are not based on science. 

Timothy A. Wise and Stacy Malkan, U.S. Right to Know

A new scientific analysis prepared by CONAHCYT, Mexico’s National Council for Humanities, Science and Technology, argues there are unacceptable health risks for Mexican people who consume genetically modified (GM) corn and glyphosate, the world’s most widely used herbicide. We analyze that evidence, which challenges U.S. claims that Mexico’s policies are not based on science.

U.S. Right to Know

Dr. Álvarez-Buylla was the head of Mexico’s national science agency, CONAHCYT, the National Council of Humanities, Science and Technology. Álvarez-Buylla’s agency was charged with documenting the scientific evidence of the risks to human health and the environment of genetically modified (GM) corn and the herbicide glyphosate. Timothy A. Wise interviewed her about that research and the U.S. challenge to Mexico’s policies.

TruthDig (In Spanish on Contralinea.)

If the U.S. government was hoping a new president would weaken Mexico's resolve to ban the cultivation and consumption of genetically modified corn, those hopes have been dashed. “We will not allow the cultivation of genetically modified corn,” Claudia Scheinbaum stated in her inauguration speech on Oct. 1. Mexico’s challenge is simple and direct: Can the USMCA be used to undermine domestic policies for public health and the environment, even when they barely affect trade?

IPS News (also available in Spanish)

Closing arguments are in in the U.S. trade complaint against Mexico’s restrictions on genetically modified (GM) corn, with the three-arbitrator tribunal set to rule on the matter in November. In the course of the year-long process Mexico has dismantled U.S. claims, showing that its precautionary measures are permitted under the terms of the trade agreement, that its restrictions barely impact U.S. exports, and that it has a mountain of scientific evidence of risk to justify its precautionary policies. Will the panel let the U.S. use a trade agreement stop a policy that barely affects trade?

IATP Blog (and in Spanish on Contralinea)

Mexico’s closing argument in its ongoing dispute with the United States over its restrictions on genetically modified (GM) corn and glyphosate residues in tortillas was published in translation June 19. The government argues persuasively in the 264-page document that it has the right to take such precautionary measures under the trade agreement, that the measures have had minimal impacts on U.S. corn exporters and that its restrictions are indeed based on peer-reviewed science documenting the risks of consuming GM corn with glyphosate residues. This “readers’ guide” analyzes the document.

Common Dreams

The three-member trade panel hearing the U.S. complaint over Mexico’s restrictions on the use of genetically modified corn in tortillas will no doubt need some scientific advice to evaluate the technical evidence presented by the Mexican government on the risks associated with GM corn and their accompanying herbicide residues. They got some on April 23 from a panel of experts assembled by the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) in the first of three webinars on the GM corn dispute.

Humanitarian Alternatives

Green Revolution initiatives in Africa promise “sustainable intensification”, productivity improvements to grow more food on the same land. In fact, donors to such initiatives need to reconsider such investments, which have prompted land-grabs rather than productivity improvements.

IATP Blog (also available in Spanish)

Since Mexico imposed its restrictions on genetically modified (GM) corn in tortillas last February as precautionary measures to protect public health and corn biodiversity, the U.S. government has repeatedly justified its challenge to the policies under the countries' trade agreement with the claim that the policies were not based on science. Mexico has now filed its formal response to the U.S. in the trade dispute. Published March 5, Mexico shows that it has the latest independent science firmly on its side.

Ken Roseboro and Timothy A. Wise, Food Tank

One of the glaring flaws in the U.S. case against Mexico’s restrictions on GM corn is the claim: that Mexico’s restrictions have impacted trade significantly and caused harm to U.S. producers. In fact, Mexico’s limits affect barely 1% of U.S. corn exports to Mexico. And those farmers could benefit from the GM corn restrictions if they switched to non-GM white corn and earned premium prices. Farm Action estimated they could collectively earn more than $7 million, which should be welcome to US farmers facing plummeting corn prices.

Food Tank (in Spanish at Pie de Página)

The Christmas holidays in the United States are nothing compared to the celebrations in Mexico. And even less so compared to those in the indigenous southern state of Oaxaca,. The mezcal flows freely all the way through New Year’s Eve to Three Kings Day January 6. The Three Kings brought gifts, but the Three Panelists empowered to settle the ongoing trade dispute between the U.S. and Mexico over genetically modified corn seem not to be in the same festive spirit, raising questions of cultural insensitivity with their first decisions.

CAMBRIDGE, MA., Dec 11 2023 (IPS) - The dispute mounted by the U.S. government over Mexico’s policies to restrict the use of genetically modified corn is the latest example of the misuse of a trade agreement to impede social programs in Mexico and other countries. The U.S. government has been doing this for years.

Timothy A. Wise and Mutinta Nketani, The Elephant (Kenya)

Some say that if you don’t have a seat at the table you are probably on the menu. That’s the way Zambian farmers are feeling. Zambia is one of several countries targeted for so-called “agro-poles,” 250,000-acre blocks of land often taken from local communities to attract agribusiness investment. On the menu indeed.

Food Tank

When I arrived in Mexico City nine years ago to research the effort by citizen groups to stop multinational seed companies from planting genetically modified corn in Mexico, the groups had just won an injunction to suspend planting permits. I asked their lead lawyer, Rene Sánchez Galindo, how he thought they could hope to overcome the massive economic and legal power of the companies and government. He said with a smile, “The judge surely eats tacos. Everyone here eats tacos. They know maize is different.”

IATP Blog

U.S. attempts to stop Mexico’s restrictions on GM corn have garnered the headlines, but the bigger story may be a sweeping set of food self-sufficiency policies of which the GM corn restrictions are a part. I recently interviewed Victor Suárez, Mexico’s Undersecretary of Agriculture for Food Self-Sufficiency, about that ambitious agenda. The full interview with Suárez is published on IATP’s web site in English and Spanish. I summarize some of the highlights in this article for IATP.

This article appeared in Spanish in La Jornada del Campo on September 5 as part of a 10-article opinion section on the ongoing trade dispute between the U.S. and Mexico over Mexico's policies restricting genetically modified corn and glyphosate.

By Mutinta Nketani and Timothy Wise, Al Jazeera

Industrial agriculture has failed to eliminate food insecurity in Africa. It is time for a radically different approach.

CAMBRIDGE, MA., Aug 29 2023 (InterPress Service) - As the adage goes, when you find yourself stuck in a hole, stop digging. As African leaders and their philanthropic and bilateral sponsors prepare for another glitzy African Green Revolution Forum, convening September 5-8 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, they are instead handing out new shovels to dig the continent deeper into a hunger crisis caused in part by their failing obsession with corporate-led industrialized agriculture.

In this interview with the Mexico Solidarity Project, Timothy A. Wise discusses the U.S. government’s efforts to prevent the Mexican government from restricting the use of genetically modified corn and the herbicide glyphosate.