Uncertainty surrounds Mexican decree banning GMOs

While uncertainty remains over whether Mexico is likely to follow the GM corn ban, agricultural authorities and trade groups are continuing discussions with Mexican leaders to show the negative impacts of such a ban. In an August meeting with Iowa farmers, US Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack played down the idea of banning imports, calling it a product of policy and a measure to protect the country's heritage. The country is proud of its white corn varieties and wants to maintain its corn seed heritage. Vilsack said he told Mexican leaders that consumers could face rising food costs without American corn to feed livestock. “That impressed,” he said at the meeting. “And we're discussing how we can get to a better place” about accepting biotech traits and continuing US corn sales to Mexico. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador's decree came into effect on January 1, 2021 and requires the elimination of glyphosate and GM corn by January 2024. Mexico imports around 17 million tons ...