Mexico Bans Monsanto’s Roundup Herbicide

JULY 12, 2020

Mexico Announces Phase-Out and Ban on Glyphosate Herbicides

Mexico announces a plan to be 100% glyphosate-free by 2024

Mexico is breaking free from Monsanto’s grip on its soil.

The country’s Environment Ministry just announced it plans to gradually reduce the amount of glyphosate farmers are allowed to use, until it is completely phased out in 2024.

“Beyond productivity, there is human and environmental health,” Director of the Renewable Natural Resources Department Adelita San Vicente Tello said in a statement.

Glyphosate is the main ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide, and one of the most controversial chemicals in the world.

It’s currently the subject of thousands of lawsuits claiming it causes non-Hodgkins lymphoma.

Farmers and landscapers who administer the weedkiller to their crops and lawns are the most exposed, but almost all of us consume trace amounts of glyphosate residue left on our grains, fruits and veggies and secondhand through meats and dairy, unless we eat all organic.

The World Health Organization and the state of California recognize the weedkiller as a probable carcinogen, and an increasing number of judges are also recognizing it as such, awarding millions of dollars to plaintiffs.

Not only is the weedkiller harmful to human health, organizations like the Center for Biological Diversity claim it’s terrible for ecological health, wiping out entire ecosystems of living organisms from soil bacteria to plants to pollinators and birds.

Mexico’s National Council of Science and Technology is analyzing alternatives to glyphosate-herbicides, including methods used by indigenous farmers for thousands of years.

In addition, government education campaigns are being prepared with different medias, such as infographics and videos that will be translated into several languages and will include data and independent scientific sources on the effects of glyphosate-based herbicides on the environment and health, with the purpose of alerting the population to the risks involved from their use. During and after these campaigns the general public and specific communities can draw their own conclusions.

Fuera Monsanto, un México unido sin transgénicos

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Companies like Monsanto are a danger to humanity

Semarnat to ban total glyphosate use by 2024, as well as GMOs from corn, soybeans and cotton

Companies like Monsanto are a danger to humanity

The country’s food sovereignty depends on actions against large companies that cling like Monsanto (recently merged to Germany’s Bayer), to continue affecting the countryside and agricultural workers around the world. Despite various demands, this company intends to continue poisoning the world population.

Our government begins to stop the actions that threaten the health of Mexicans. Finally, one of the most dangerous pesticides for humans and nature, glyphosate, begins to be blocked. The Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources ( Semarnat ) will totally ban its use by 2024. 

Many studies have shown how the health of people who were exposed to this pesticide was degraded . Not only in our country, in various parts of the world, lawsuits were even won against Monsanto-Bayer; It was shown to cause cancer, malformations, encephalopathy, autism, and Parkinson’s. 

Studies verified that the tortilla, the primary food of the Mexican families, which was prepared with white and yellow corn flour of the Maseca brand, contained transgenic corn, as well as high levels of glyphosate. The company defended its product, obviously, under existing regulations and ensured that its cornmeal met all the standards. 

Much remains to be done against this agrochemical, classified by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a carcinogenic potential. But it is worth saying that since 2019 Semarnat took precautionary measures so that this and 40 other pesticides stop being used in our country. Organizations such as the National Agricultural Council responded against this and seek to reverse the eventual transformation of the agri-food system, based on an agro-ecological model, respectful of nature and human health. 

The Mexican countryside has been affected for decades with the use of this pesticide and GMOs from corn, soybeans and cotton, which will also be banned eventually. 

The covid-19 pandemic reminded us, among other things, of the importance of good nutrition. I will repeat that our country has the highest number in cases of obesity, followed by diabetes, diseases that are related to the high consumption of junk food and sugary drinks, which are responsible for more than 24,000 deaths each year in Mexico, according with the National Institute of Public Health.

Ten years ago 7 out of 10 adults had diabetes and 3 out of 10 children were overweight or obese. The cost of these diseases was more than 85 billion pesos a year in treatment and more than 400 million lost working hours due to diabetes associated with overweight and obesity.

Food labeling comes into effect in October, so that people can easily find out what they eat. The industry dedicated to these foods will look for strategies so that their losses are not large, as the soft drinks companies did after the increase of 1 peso per liter in 2014, which intensified sales promotions and advertising strategies to preserve their numbers despite the measure. collection.

The Mexican population remains uninformed, the great challenge is to break the food chain with which advertising bombards us. To give way to the consumption of healthy food, derived from production with agroecological systems, that is, ecologically adequate agriculture, livestock and fishing, to begin with, the government must encourage this agricultural revolution with which to fight diseases derived from poor diet.

Víctor M. Toledo, head of the SemarnatHe states that for this, a national strategy is already being worked on with the support of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), which should be implemented in the coming months. “Food, in addition, must circulate through fair, organic, solidarity and short distance markets, multiplying street markets and seed and diverse product fairs. Finally, thousands of cooperatives must be created to connect agroecological production with the broad consumer sectors of the cities: buildings, neighborhoods, schools, unions, universities, factories, hospitals, etc. Only in this way will the 4T government be able to purify the blood of Mexicans, still contaminated by soft drinks, pesticides, hormones, antibiotics and other toxins, after three decades of neoliberal governments ”,

Last year, this agency authorized the import of 86,449 tons of glyphosate. The National Institute of Ecology and Climate Change (INECC) reported that only 21,147 tons of the herbicide were imported. Gradually, the entry of this poison has been prevented, but companies interested in its use continue to pressure the Mexican government to retract it.

These companies have hurt humanity to a great extent. Monsanto-Bayer are responsible for thousands of humans suffering from encephalopathy, autism, parkinsonism, Non-Hodgkin lymphoma, teratogenesis, oxidative stress, mutagenicity, genotoxicity, disorders in the endocrine system, toxicity in the reproductive system, immune system (of utmost importance in times of the COVID-19 pandemic), nervous system and renal system, among other diseases. Furthermore, the use of glyphosate has to do with toxicity in fish, amphibians, turtles, crustaceans, mollusks, phytoplankton, zooplankton, pollinating organisms and other beneficial insects, and in birds and reptiles. 

The German multinational Bayer bought Monsanto in 2018 for $ 66 billion. Thus, it became the largest GM and agrochemical seed company in the world. This week, the Bayer-Monsanto out-of-court settlement with nearly 100,000 US whistleblowers was made public. The multinational battlement bid almost 11,000 million dollars to curb lawsuits for the consequences on the health of the pesticide .

Glyphosate once it reaches the ground passes into the air into the water, expands like a pest. Recent studies carried out by the University of Guadalajara (UDG) and Ciesas Occidente, found the pesticide in the urine of boys and girls from communities close to crops in Jalisco, “food giant”. They all showed symptoms like headaches, vomiting, and nausea. 

To corroborate the results, an alleged civil association, Proccyt, came, which was actually a front for the companies that poisoned the children (its members are Syngenta, Bayer-Monsanto, Corteva, FMC, Basf and others). They held workshops and determined that only by drinking the glyphosate before taking the sample from the children, residues could appear in the urine. Although the authorities were part of the deception for a long time, people no longer believe these lies and the use of these agrochemicals will be stopped in the following years.

In addition to the United States, Argentina also suffers the consequences of the use of this herbicide that today reaches 28 million hectares in that country. Nothing but GMO corn, cotton and soy can grow in those fields. It is also used in citrus, pome fruit (apple, pear, quince), vine, yerba mate, sunflower, grass, pine and wheat. From the transgenic advance, the use of glyphosate increased geometrically, initially developed and marketed by Monsanto since the 70’s.

In our country, Mayan communities have been fighting since 2012 against several multinational companies that obtained a license to plant transgenic soybeans in their territories, mainly affecting beekeepers, due to deforestation and the use of pesticides and pesticides by large soybean producers.

FROM THE CENTER

On July 1, the Treaty between Mexico, the United States and Canada (T-MEC or USMCA) entered into force, after several months of negotiations to improve NAFTA, an agreement that lasted 26 years. 10 chapters were added and 24 were improved, among the main changes are labor rights and wages. The new chapters have to do with digital commerce, the environment, competitiveness, anti-corruption, good regulatory practices, and small and medium-sized companies … Emilio Lozoya Austin, former director of Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex), agreed to voluntarily surrender to the Mexican authorities and He gave his consent to be transferred to national territory.

Source: gob.mx/semarnat, sustainablepulse.com, el-mexicano.com.mx

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