The Demand Is Clear: Mexico Should Not Postpone the Ban on Glyphosate and GMOs
Last week, over 60 Mexican and international organizations signed a joint letter addressed to Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador and the people of Mexico to demand the protection of a GMO and glyphosate free country.
The demand is clear: Mexico should not postpone the ban on glyphosate and its associated pesticides as well as GMOs, which have been proved to cause environmental, health, social and economical damage.
This letter is the result of the coordinated work of many organizations including Vía Orgánica, Regeneration International and Organic Consumers Association and has been endorsed by farmers, beekeepers, activists, scientists, organic certifiers and members of academia.
Glyphosate is a herbicide classified by the World Health Organization in 2015 as a possible carcinogen in humans. Its dangers have already been proven in 1,108 scientific articles (Rossi, 2020 available on the website: nature of rights (http://www.naturalezadederechos.org/antologia5.pdf ). Congenital malformations, alterations in the nervous, hormonal and gastrointestinal systems, infertility, various types of cancer (Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma), encephalopathy, mutagenesis, autism, Parkinson’s, nervous system, endocrine and renal system disorders, gluten intolerance, liver damage, and damage to the immune system have widely been reported and covered. Damage to biodiversity includes damage to amphibians, fish, birds, reptiles, mollusks, turtles, bees and other pollinators. There are also affectations to water and soil (Watts et al, 2016 cited by Bejarano, 2017)
Alternatives to glyphosate already exist in Mexico and other places in the world. Several bio factories have already been set up in Mexico and the Mexican government has stated that new reviews and meta-analyses of hundreds of scientific investigations and field experiences confirm and strengthen the evidence that in diversified and agroecological agriculture there are viable alternatives to glyphosate for producers of different scales.