Mexico's lower house of Congress has approved a constitutional reform to ban the planting of GM corn, a move that could lead to more tension with the US after the resolution of a trade dispute. The initiative by President Claudia Sheinbaum comes after a trade-dispute panel ruled that Mexico's restrictions on GM corn, mostly imported from the US, violate the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). As a result of the USMCA panel ruling, Mexico repealed its import restrictions on GM corn for human, livestock and industrial uses. Mexico had already prohibited the commercial planting of GM corn strains, arguing they will contaminate native corn, but Sheinbaum pledged to officially prohibit the planting of GM corn in the country via the Constitution. However, the text of the reform also states that "Any other use of genetically modified corn must be evaluated... to be free of threats to the biosecurity, health and biocultural heritage of Mexico and its population." Some analysts said the reform could spark a new controversy with the US because it refers to the use of GM corn, and not just the planting of the grain. Reuters

 

 

Watch an inspiring mini video (in Spanish, but non-Spanish speakers will get the gist) of the celebrations of the vote that passed the constitutional amendment! @tori_noticias on X

 

 

The UK government has published the draft Statutory Instrument, or secondary legislation, that will implement the Genetic Technology Act 2023, which deregulates a subclass of GMOs in England. There are no surprises – it's as bad as we feared and the present Labour government hasn't improved on the Tories' draft proposal at all.GMWatch comment on UK Government secondary legislation

 

 

Patsy Hopper dreamed of a home in the country with a garden and lots of trees. What she didn’t count on were the herbicides that would drift in from the farmland around her, killing vegetables in her garden and wild flowers in the ditches and curling the leaves of the trees she had planted. “I have a lot of trees dying,” said Hopper. “I don’t think they’ll survive.” Hopper isn’t alone. A weedkiller called dicamba, which is used in growing GM crops such as soybeans and cotton, has become notorious for inflicting widespread damage beyond the fields where it is sprayed. Dicamba drift has harmed other farmers’ crops, as well as vegetable gardens, orchards, and natural vegetation. The damage has spawned lawsuits and caused hard feelings in rural communities. It even led to the killing of an Arkansas farmer. Last year, a US court banned the use of the dicamba spraying on growing crops. Now, as farmers prepare for their next planting season, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is again considering whether to grant approval to dicamba products used with GM dicamba-tolerant crops. The New Lede

 

 

A food safety expert has warned that Nigeria’s food sovereignty is seriously threatened as multinational corporations tighten their grip on the seed sector through patenting and intellectual property rights. Prof Qrisstuberg Amua, the executive director of the Centre for Food Safety and Agricultural Research (CEFSAR), pointed out that several foreign companies are leveraging intellectual property laws to dominate global and Nigeria’s seed markets. This trend, he argued, would limit seed diversity, driving up prices and restricting farmers’ rights to save and replant seeds while eroding their fundamental practice in traditional farming. He said, "In countries such as India, where Bt cotton was once celebrated as a success story, farmers are now trapped in cycles of debt due to the high cost of GMO seeds and related agricultural inputs." Leadership

 

 

Quang Tri Province in central Vietnam is urgently appealing to the United States Embassy to restore funding for Unexploded Ordnance (UXO) and Agent Orange cleanup projects. These critical initiatives have been significantly impacted by funding cuts implemented by the Trump-Musk administration. Since taking office, the Trump-Musk regime has drastically reduced foreign aid projects, with the exception of those that support Israel’s wars in the Middle East. This blanket reduction in aid included the cessation of US support for vital projects aimed at addressing the devastating and lasting effects of the Vietnam War, specifically UXO clearance and Agent Orange environmental clean-up. People's World

 

 

UC Berkeley is a renowned home of activism and social justice, and when it comes to the use of herbicides on the campus grounds, there is no exception. Back in 2017, recognising the harmful health impacts of herbicides being sprayed around their beach volleyball courts, two Cal beach volleyball players worked with the athletics grounds manager to find an alternative solution: In exchange for banning glyphosate-based herbicide from the courts, the team would pull weeds. By 2018, these green spaces were being managed organically, and the grounds team — now trained on organic management and receptive to the transition — began to expand this new way of management to other areas of campus. Today, UC Berkeley manages 95% of campus organically and continues to work with students to hold regular weeding days where students help pull weeds in areas that otherwise would have been sprayed with herbicide. The Daily Californian

 

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