As snow swirled over the soil hundreds of acres in each direction, Owen Niese already was worried about a crop that hadn’t even been planted.
He was concerned because Mexico’s president, Andrés Obrador, decided this winter to ban genetically modified corn, a staple crop not just for Niese, but for farmers across northern Ohio.
Mexico is the second-largest buyer of U.S. corn, just behind China. Ohio is a top 10 corn-producing state.
The ban came about four months after Niese, like most farmers, already had purchased 2023 seed corn.
“They want to deliver it now, because I need to plant it in a month,” Niese said. “So for this year, it’s impossible to get non-GMO seed and produce a non-GMO crop.”
Obrador’s corn ban is not just financially troubling for farmers, but also is a direct violation of an international treaty, according to Tadd Nicholson, executive director of Ohio Corn & Wheat Growers Association.
Ohio’s top corn-growing advocate [says] Obrador has chosen politics over science.
“He is ignoring the sound science that says, by every health organization in the world that has tested this, that it is safe for consumption of both humans and animals,” Nicholson said. “So it’s very political.”
