The Corn Saga: How Years of Activism, Scientific Research and Perseverance Led to an Inspiring Victory Against Big Ag and the GMO Giants.

**UPDATE 3/6/2025: After five hours of deliberation, with a vote of 97 in favor and 16 opposing, the Mexican Senate approves the constitutional reform to ban GMOs. In a closing statement the director of the Morena party Adán Augusto López Hernández stated, “We must continue protecting our country, we will not fail.”

Mexico City – On February 25, the Chamber of Deputies approved a constitutional reform to articles 4 and 27 to prohibit the planting of genetically modified corn, prioritize the protection of biodiversity and food sovereignty, defend the milpa system and promote traditional crops and native seeds.

The road to this victory has been long and arduous involving many dedicated activists, organizations, lawyers, researchers, farmers, environmentalists and concerned citizens. The Organic Consumers Association (OCA) and our sister organization, Vía Orgánica, are proud to say that we have played a key role in the success of this movement. 

An Important Step for Civil Society: Winning the Cultural and Political Battle 

In 2018, OCA tested results on samples of Maseca white and yellow corn flour, sourced from different regions of Mexico, which showed concerning levels of glyphosate and GMOs. Some flour samples tested as high as 94.15 percent for the presence of genetically modified organisms (GMOs). This important research has added invaluable tangible facts to the case against GMO corn in Mexico, showing the risks GMOs and the pesticides that accompany them present to public health. OCA’s work with the Sin Maíz No Hay País (No Corn No Country) campaign, along with continued research, education, activism, network building, and support, was fundamental in achieving a temporary ban in 2020 on the open-field production of GM corn in Mexico.

The powerful Sin Maíz No Hay País campaign, was fundamental in safeguarding not only Mexico’s panoply of corn varieties, but also the millennia-old seed saving and breeding practices through which they were developed and the resurgence of national pride surrounding native maíz. More and more seed exchange festivals have emerged and the celebration of the National day of Corn (September 29th) became a well-known day of celebration of biocultural richness in all of Mexico.

With this increase in celebrations and festivals, consumers all over the country have become aware and concerned about the dangers of GMO corn and are demanding labeling and transparency.

The “100 percent nixtamalized (the process used to make authentic traditional tortillas)” OCA campaign has also been important in the protection of the nixtamalized tortilla and the recognition and inclusion of the communities that produce the nixtamalized tortilla, providing information for consumers to make decisions for the benefit of their health while exposing the low quality of industrialized corn flour tortillas.

OCA has also been fundamental at connecting networks of support and dialogue between Mexican buyers and farmers and US farmers: this rejection of GMO corn in Mexico could be a great opportunity for the $40 billion non-GMO market in the US, and non-GMO grain suppliers, seed companies and farmers to supply Mexico with non-GMO white and yellow corn.

Is Corn Just a Commodity?

In December 2020, a presidential decree was issued seeking to ban GM corn for human consumption in Mexico by 2024. This caused a tremendous and fast reaction in the US market, after all, Mexico is the biggest buyer of the corn grown in the United States, 90 percent of which is genetically engineered. The US government argued that the decree was in violation of the USMCA (United States-Mexico-Canada free trade agreement). Mexico annually imports 16 million tons of corn from the United States, the equivalent to $2.7B dollars. White corn for human consumption is grown domestically in Mexico, but the import of yellow corn for livestock feed and for processed industrialized foods such as high-fructose corn syrup remains controversial. 

Four years later, in December 2024, a trade dispute panel ruled against Mexico’s restrictions on the use of genetically modified (GM or genetically engineered) corn, siding with the United States and Canada and forcing Mexico to allow the use of GM corn for food. The panel stated that Mexico’s efforts to ban the importation of transgenic corn on human health grounds weren’t scientifically supported. This proved once again, as it has been demonstrated for almost 32 years, how corn has been a victim of free trade agreements.

A Defining Moment for Civil Society: The Fundamental Rights of Corn

A clear example of the power of organized civil society was the addendum proposed by Claudia Sheinbaum in early February to the Chamber of Deputies on the Constitutional Reform Initiative on the protection of native corn. It rectified the initiative sent on January 23rd which generated rejection among social, farmer and scientific organizations that make up the National Campaign Sin Maíz No Hay Paíz. The group of organizations argued that the first initiative only protected native corn from GMOs, an obsolete biotechnology, but left the door open to other forms of genetically modified corn.

During the morning conference, the President read the proposal to modify Article 4,

President Sheinbaum stated:

“Mexico is the center of origin and diversity of corn, element of national identity, basic food of the Mexican people and the basis of the existence of indigenous and Afro-Mexican peoples, its cultivation in the national territory must be free of genetic modifications produced with techniques that overcome the natural barriers of reproduction or recombination such as transgenic ones.”

In addition: “Any other use of genetically modified corn must be evaluated under the terms of the legal provisions to be free from threats to biosecurity, health and the biocultural heritage of Mexico and its population, priority must be given to the protection of biodiversity, food sovereignty, agroecological management, promoting scientific and humanistic research, innovation and traditional knowledge”.

In Our Own Words

As Mercedes López, Mexican Director of Organic Consumers Association’s sister organization Vía Orgánica and representative of the “Demanda Colectiva” class action lawsuit explains:

“In order to defend the modification of two constitutional articles is underway: Article 4, which seeks to protect Mexico as the center of origin and permanent diversity of corn, an element of national identity, and which establishes its cultivation free of genetic modifications; as well as Article 27, which protects and promotes traditional crops with native seeds through the milpa system”.

“This initiative was approved by the Chamber of Deputies and will be analyzed in the coming days by the Senate of the Republic. It seeks the conservation and protection of native Mexican corn that has been developed for 10,000 years by indigenous and Afro-American populations to give Mexico and the world 64 breeds and thousands of varieties of corn that are used by the population as food, compost, medicine, sacred rites, handicrafts and construction. For unscrupulous transnational companies such as Bayer-Monsanto, Syngenta and Dow Agrosciences, corn is nothing but a highly valuable commodity to manipulate and control. This constitutional reform seeks to prevent genetically modified corn as a result of the trade dispute that Mexico lost, in the framework of the USMCA, last December, a task in which the work of the peasant communities and native peoples who continue to plant native corn and milpa (a holistic system of growing food and traditional medicines) has been fundamental, as well as various networks such as the National Campaign without Corn there is no Country, of which Vía Orgánica, Organic Consumers Association and Regeneration International are an integral part”.