Through its Decree banning imports of GM corn and restricting trade with the United States and other countries, the administration of Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has been using nationalism as a way to sell the dramatic decisions they have made for Mexican fields, as well as with other decisions to support fossil fuels (that depend directly on a Mexican company), because part of the Decree goals is to protect the native corn varieties.
The idea behind the Decree is to reach “food sovereignty” following the narrative that by protecting Mexican legacy and ancient farm practices as a way to ensure the Mexican future, even when data says otherwise.
Mexico is far from achieving food sovereignty in corn, according to the Mexican newspaper Milenio. With an average production of four tons per hectare, the goal for 2024 is to reach six tons per hectare to reduce the imports of GM corn. But without the use of GM varieties, the prohibition of agricultural supplies such as glyphosate and the reduction of economic support to farmers, this goal seems completely disconnected from reality.
Domestic corn production is not showing any growth
Victor Suarez, undersecretary of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (SADER) declared that “Mexico will reduce -GM corn- imports by 50 percent in 2024” as part of the Mexican government-implemented strategy to end the dependence of GM corn import from the US. However, the data say otherwise. Currently Mexico is self-sufficient in the production of white corn mostly used in the Mexican cuisine but is completely dependent -and the second-largest importer in the world- of yellow corn which is used to feed farm animals. In 2020 Mexico imported 18 million tons of GM corn, a record in the history.
To accomplish the government’s goal and the current president’s campaign promise, corn production needs to increase gradually from now to 2024. In the first half of 2021 Mexico produced 6,939,000 tons, representing a 5.2% reduction with respect to 2020’s production in the same period. Several factors are impacting national production of corn in the country, where every agricultural cycle of production has presented losses, and the harvest registered in the first half of this year barely represents the 24% progress of the year’s goal.
Over the last years, several droughts have been affecting planting areas. And, with an active moratorium on planting any GM corn in the nation, farmers and producers can only use and cultivate local and hybrid varieties that do not respond as quickly as GM varieties do to constant environmental changes due to climate change effects already visible in Mexican fields.
Mexican solutions limited by ideology-based regulation
Despite the constant attacks that biotechnology received in the country and strong funding cuts even to basic science research, Mexican scientists created a local GM variety in public research centers to help farmers to face climate change effects. An example of this is the development of a highly productive strain of corn resistant to droughts, that in lab conditions showed to be tolerated to droughts and presented an improved growth under conditions of scarce irrigation and at low temperatures, compared with standard corn.
But this new Mexican variety is limited to the lab due to current regulation. It is not possible to conduct additional field trials and request environmental release. Therefore, improved varieties created through the use of biotechnology are far away from farmers’ use, making the goal to increase domestic corn production ever more challenging. Only by using hybrids and native varieties is not enough to replace the millions of tons imported of GM corn mostly from the US, using existing farmland and ancient technology.
Is agroecology saving the day?
One of the strategies the Mexican government is implementing to try to reduce corn imports is to provide financial assistance only to small and medium farmers and incentivize the use of agroecological practices, such as the use of milpas. But this sector — even as is the largest in the country (up to 70%) — is the least productive. in Mexican fields, only 10% are properly equipped with irrigated systems, and these larger farmers are the ones maintaining corn production, and ironically are the ones left behind and without the financial support that they received in previous administrations.
The training that these small and medium farmers receive from the government in Field Schools are mostly lessons based on agroecological techniques. President Lopez Obrador himself has told them that agroecology is the way to go by implementing a national agroecology program, to seek a sustainable food system in Mexico by reducing long-used conventional techniques such machinery, fertilizers, irrigation and GM seeds, and agricultural supplies such as glyphosate and pesticides.
As a measure to boost agroecology in Mexico in all other food production systems, financial support was cut, limiting farmers’ chances to export their products, and forcing them to follow the strategy implemented by the current administration if they want to receive funds.
The immediate challenge in Mexico is to achieve sovereignty and food security without environmental costs, and it is clear that basing domestic food production system on agroecology is not the right answer: farmland used to be competitive compared with other food production systems is not sustainable and not affordable for a high percentage of Mexicans. The agroecology idea may be well received by like-minded environmentalists and be sold as a way “to go back to our roots and cultivate as ancient Mexicans used to do it” and gain popularity for politicians and get votes. But the reality is that we need all available tools to satisfy growing food demand.
It’s 2021, and Mexico is already rejecting GM corn import permits
Even though 2024 is the deadline to ban GM corn imports, and the constitutionality of the Decree is still pending, Mexican institutions are already denying approvals to GMO corn in Mexico.
Reuters reported that “Bayer is evaluating its legal options after Mexican health regulators for the first time rejected a GMO corn permit.”
According to Mexican regulations the company needed approval from the Secretary of Health to allow any GMO import, so without a favorable resolution Bayer -and any other company- cannot import any new GM corn to Mexico.
“We are disappointed with the unscientific reasons that Cofepris — the Mexican authority on the charge to deal with approvals, a branch from the Secretary of Health — used to deny the authorization” reported Reuters from a Bayer’s statement about this rejection.
As reported by USDA GAIN, even when the Decree only considers the ban of GM corn and glyphosate, since May 2018 Mexico has not approved any biotechnology food or feed product. Currently, GM cotton is the only GM crop planted in Mexico. But in 2020 “the denial of cultivation permits, together with the lack of GM seeds and low glyphosate stocks resulted in an estimated 36% annual decrease in the area of GM cotton planted in Mexico,” according to a USDA report. This decision adds cotton farmers and textile producers to the affected society sectors in the decision of the Mexican government against the use of GM crops in the nation.
While protecting native corn varieties may sound like a noble effort, in the reality only a small percentage of the population consumes them — just those that cultivate them in small sectors or consume them as gourmet cuisine. These products are more expensive than other corn varieties such as the hybrids that are more widely used for corn farmers in the country.
Luis Ventura is a biologist with expertise in biotechnology, biosafety and science communication, born and raised in a small town near Mexico City. He is a Plant Genetic Resources International Platform Fellow at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. Follow him on Twitter @luisventura
