savoy011

Moderator’s Note: We have received this update from our colleagues in the anti-GMO movement in Mexico as part of our continuing coverage of the social movement known as Sin Maíz, No Hay País (Without Corn, There is No Country). The remarkable court victory against Monsanto, DuPont, Bayer CropScience, and other so-called ‘Gene Giants’ in Mexico City federal court last October by the civil society organizations in Mexico was unprecedented. We have never before seen a Mexican federal court hand down a ruling in which the nation’s commitment as a signatory to the Convention on Biodiversity (CBD) and the Cargtegena Biosafety Protocol trumped application of the investor-state treaty known as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), with its purely symbolic and ultimately meaningless voluntary recommendations under the absurd framework of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC). There is still work to do in Mexico and as our colleagues here note, “ Multinational seed com...

UPDATE:  Upon further review of a second press release and correspondence with colleagues in Mexico City, San Diego, California, and  Seattle,Washington, I have decided to use a different post headline. It is more accurate to state that a federal judge suspended transgenic corn plantings rather than to imply a nationwide ban. That may be a future possibility but is not the nature of this particular ruling. It was not my intent to  mislead but the original post heading was careless.  However, the original and still unedited title of the post of October 11 accurately reflects what the first press release made clear, and that is simply: That a federal judge in Mexico City issued a temporary restraining order involving  the suspension of new plantings of transgenic maize  as part of a fairly narrow legal opinion to allow for the resolution of several pending lawsuits that will affect federal law on TRIPs, biosafety, and perhaps even the preservation of biocult...

UPDATE: Upon further review of a second press release and correspondence with colleagues in Mexico City, San Diego, California, and  Seattle,Washington, I have decided to use a different post headline. It is more accurate to state that a federal judge suspended transgenic corn plantings rather than to imply a nationwide ban. That may be a future possibility but is not the nature of this particular ruling. It was not my intent to  mislead but the original post heading was careless.  However, the original and still unedited title of the post accurately reflects what the first press release made clear and that is simply that a federal judge in Mexico City issued a temporary restraining order involving  the suspension of new plantings of transgenic maize  as part of a fairly narrow legal opinion ruling to allow for the resolution of several pending lawsuits that will affect federal law on TRIPs, biosafety, and perhaps even the preservation of biocultural diversity i...