Mexico City (EFE) .- President Claudia Sheinbaum published the reform that prohibits in the Constitution the planting of transgenic corn, despite the recent ruling against the dispute under the treaty between Mexico, the United States and Canada (TMEC).
Article 4 of the Constitution now establishes that the cultivation of corn “in the national territory must be free of genetic modifications, produced with techniques that exceed the natural barriers of reproduction or recombination, such as transgenics.”
“Mexico is the center of origin and diversity of corn, which is an element of national identity, basic food of the people of Mexico and the basis of the existence of indigenous and Afromexican peoples,” the president read at her morning conference.
In addition to planting, the reform establishes that “all other use of genetically modified corn must be evaluated in the terms of the legal provisions to be free of threats to the biosecurity, health and biocultural heritage of Mexico and its population.”
In article 27, the Constitution now establishes that the Government will promote the cultural, economic and health development of the peasants, as well as protect their traditional crops and native seeds.
LEE: Congress prohibits the cultivation of transgenic corn: Reform seeks to protect varieties native to the country
The State now recognizes that “the protection of biodiversity, food sovereignty, its agroecological management, promoting scientific-humanistic research, innovation and traditional knowledge.”
The reform is published after the final report of the group of specialists of the TMEC was revealed in December that concluded that the measures implemented by Mexico to prohibit the importation of genetically modified corn do not meet the international and scientific standards required by the treaty.
The Mexican government had promised to comply with the resolution, the result of a controversy that began the United States and that which was added by Canada against the decree of former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador on the restriction of glyphosate and transgenic corn, in 2023.
Mexico is self -sufficient in white corn for human consumption, but in 2023 it imported more than 3.5 billion dollars in the United States.
With EFE information
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