GEO Watch | Mexican government ignoring transgenic biosafety concerns

Criticisms by scientists, civil society, and indigenous farmers dismissed

NO REPLY
TO FAO AND CBD INQUIRIES

Devon G.
Peña |  Las Colonias de San Pablo, CO |
July 6, 2014

While Mexico is a party to the international treaty
known as the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and a
signatory to the Cartegena Protocol (which is fully enforceable), the federal
government is so far ignoring both court rulings against Monsanto and other
corporations and the advice of its own and other scientific committees actively
advising the international bodies concerned with enforcing the CBD’s biosafety
regulations.  The reinstalled PRI presidency occupied by Enrique Peña Nieto is unsurprisingly acting the usual arrogant way and ignoring science and the rule of law.

This past week, we received correspondence from
scientist-advocates attending CDB-SBSTTA
18 in Montreal, Canada reporting these concerns. Article 25 of the CBD “establishes
an open-ended intergovernmental scientific advisory body known as the
Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA) to
provide the Conference of the Parties (COP) and, as appropriate, its other
subsidiary bodies, with timely advice relating to the implementation of the
Convention.” The 18^th meeting of this advisory group met during June
2014.

A group of esteemed scientists and activists in the
non-GMO movement were present at this meeting. Ricarda Steinbrecher (ENSSER), Christine von Weizsäcker (European
Network on Ecological Reflection, Ecoropa), Helena Paul (Econexus), and Sylvia Ribero (ETC Group) met in Montreal with the Executive
Secretary of the CBD, Braulio F. de Souza Díaz. The group presented our
declaration in hand, in the name of all the signatories, and presented widespread
concerns in the global community over the lack of biosafety action on
transgenics, especially in Mexico.

They presented a list of substantive concerns over
the growing number of transboundary contamination cases; these illustrate a
conscious failure of governmental compliance with biosafety rules – Mexico is a
signatory to the CBD and the Cartegena Protocols – and the agreed-to
protections are clearly not functioning. This is a matter of greatest urgency
since this involves the threat and incidence of contamination of maize and rice
in the centers of origin and a disrespect for farmers’ and plant breeders’
rights.

Maize biodiversity is key to Mexican
food sovereignty.

Photo
courtesy of eww blog.

Our colleagues wrote in their declaration that Mexico
is in violation – or at least a clear negligence – of article 17 of Cartagena
Protocol. There are also violations of Article
8(g) and possibly, per Ribero, also article 8 (j). In fact, several parts
of CDB Article 8 could be seen as having been violated due to cases of GM
contamination in Mexico and other countries subject to transgenic varieties of
corn and rice.

The Executive Secretary of the CBD was reportedly “very
open to listen[ing to] the concerns and clarified that:

1) The CBD has not a compliance committee, which
means that decisions related to enforcement of the CBD are respected only
because of respect of international diplomatic agreements – this can of course
always be recalled, but it is more of a diplomatic [process].  2) The Cartagena Protocol does have a Compliance committee and parties of the protocol can
take this to the committee as a concern for biodiversity and rules of the CDB but
as it is now, they have to show how they are affected and could therefore only
take cases in their own countries, which is a limitation, that might change in
the future.
 In both cases, the issue must be raised by the
Parties and not by Secretariat; but de Souza Díaz recorded the concerns
presented by the international activist group. 3) In the case of Mexico, the Executive Secretary
confirmed that – following submission of a letter of concern over the contamination
of maize in the Center of Origin, sent at the end of 2012 by the ETC Group,
GRAIN and La Via Campesina (reposted below) – he sent a letter to the Mexican
Government, asking how they would handle this very sensitive situation and
their obligations under CDB. The Mexican Government never replied, apparently
feeling no need to abide by its international treaty obligations.” 

I have translated (from Spanish to English) the
above-referenced letter of November 2012 that was presented to the Food and
Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the CBD. The original version in Spanish can
be read at La
Via Campesina.

Transgenic Maize in the Center of
Origin: Open Letter to FAO and CBD

Dear Dr. José Graziano da
Silva,

Dear Dr. Braulio Ferreira de
Souza Dias,

Through this letter we direct ourselves to you to
solicit your attention and prompt action on an issue of global importance and
gravity: the impending transgenic contamination of indigenous peasant maize in
its center of origin, Mexico, and the impacts this would have on agricultural
biodiversity, the possibilities to tackle climate change, and food
self-sufficiency, globally.

In September 2012, three multinational companies
(Monsanto, DuPont and Dow) requested approval of the commercial planting of
transgenic maize, for a total of nearly 2,500,000 acres in two states of
Mexico. Many farmers’ and civil society organizations and scientists believe
that this release could be approved soon, as companies have announced that they
will sow transgenic (genetically engineered) maize for commercial release during
the planting season from December to January 2012-2013 and the government of
Mexico has ignored the critical voices that are independent reviews of the companies.
The requested permission this time is for a surface area is of such immense
magnitude that it will undoubtedly lead to extensive GM contamination of
farmers’ varieties. It would be the first massive commercial scale release of
transgenic crops that directly affects a global food crop in its center of
origin and diversity.

Mural celebrating maize culture in resistance
against transgenic corn in Mexico.

Photo by Prometeo Lucero. Courtesy of
GRAIN.

These authorizations would be the culmination of two
years of experimental plantings by the Mexican government, which in 2009
decided to break the de facto
moratorium that had been established since 1999 against the planting of transgenic
maize, despite the fact that the conditions that led to the moratorium have not
changed. The poor conditions for biosecurity on experimental plantings have
been strongly criticized by hundreds of experts [1], but the government has not
given attention to these criticisms. For this reason, along with hundreds of
other organizations, we directed ourselves to your predecessor at the FAO on
May 19, 2009 to request action [upholding the moratorium].

In January 2012, the UN Special Rapporteur on the
Right to Food, Olivier de Schutter, after an official visit to Mexico conducted
in 2011, expressly recommended that the Mexican government reinstate the
moratorium on the planting of transgenic corn, due to its impacts on
biodiversity and farmers’ rights. [2] The Mexican government ignored the
recommendation and now the situation is much more serious.

Given the grave risks to biodiversity at the center
of the origin of maize and the rights of farmers, more than 2,370 scientists
from Mexico and many other countries requested in November 2012 that the
Mexican government not authorize commercial planting of transgenic corn in
Mexico and that it cease all experimental plantings of this crop, reinstating
the moratorium which was in effect from 1999, until it is possible to analyze
and discuss the implications of planting transgenic maize for the country and
its role as a center of origin of the crop worldwide in a manner independent of
profit-oriented interests with actual transparency and full social
participation. [3]

This matter is not just important to Mexico but to
the rest of the international community since many countries depend on maize
for their basic food, including many of the countries with hunger in Africa and
that moreover depend on the diversity of maize to face the challenges provoked
by climate change.

For all these reasons, we ask you that the FAO and
the CBD, through the relevant agencies, call on the government of Mexico to apply
the precautionary principle and urgently restore the moratorium on experimental
and commercial GM maize, as well as to protect the rights of farmers, peasants and
indigenous peoples, and the basis of food sovereignty worldwide.

Attentively,

Alberto Gomez, La Via
Campesina

viacampesina@viacampesina.org

Pat Mooney, Silvia Ribeiro,
ETC Group

etc@etcgroup.org  

Henk Hobbelink, Grain

grain@grain.org  

Endnotes to
2012 Letter

[1] Union of Concerned
Scientists Committed to Society (UCCS), Estrangement to the President of
Mexico, Mexico, September 29, 2009, http://www.unionccs.net/doc/g/sciencetrmaize_es.

[2] Olivier de Schutter, Report on Mexico, paragraphs 53, 54, 55.

http://www.srfood.org/index.php/en/country-missions;
See “Mission to Mexico” (January 2012)

[3] Union of Concerned
Scientists Committed to Society (UCCS), called for action against the planting
of transgenic maize in Mexico outfield, Mexico, November 2012 Declaration and
signature update is available at:. http://www.uccs.mx/doc/g/planting-gmo-corn_es….