‘Science proves GM corn and the herbicide glyphosate are harmful to human health and native crop varieties’: US claims Mexico ignores ‘decades’ worth of evidence demonstrating their safety

Credit: CIMMYT via CC-BY-NC-SA-2.0
Credit: CIMMYT via CC-BY-NC-SA-2.0

In a written submission to a panel of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, Mexico, the top buyer of U.S. corn, argued that science proves GM corn and the herbicide glyphosate are harmful to human health and its native varieties, and that its decree to ban GM corn for human consumption is within its right.

A spokesman for the U.S. Department of Agriculture said Mexico’s approach to biotechnology runs counter to “decades’ worth of evidence demonstrating its safety.”

A senior official for the U.S. Trade Representative said, “Scientific authorities, including in Mexico, have consistently found biotech products like corn to be safe over a period of decades.”

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Mexico’s written response cited studies it said showed links between GM corn consumption and glyphosate exposure to liver inflammation in people and impacts to immune response in animals, saying it considers the risk to human health “extremely serious.”

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