A Mexican judge has thrown out the appeals of Mexico’s SEMARNAT (Environment and Natural Resources Ministry), and Monsanto, who were attempting to overturn a September court ruling that banned the planting of GM maize in Mexico.
Rene Sanchez Galindo, the attorney for the group Acción Colectiva, revealed the failure of the appeals in a special announcement late last week.
Acción Colectiva, a group of 53 scientists and 22 organizations, which successfully brought the case to ban GM maize in Mexico, is led by Father Miguel Concha of the Human Rights Center Fray Francisco de Vittoria; Victor Suarez of ANEC (National Association of Rural Commercialization Entertprises); Dr. Mercedes Lopéz of Vía Organica; and Adelita San Vicente, a teacher and member of Semillas de Vida, a national organization that has been involved in broad-based social action projects to protect Mexico’s important status as a major world center of food crop biodiversity.
Sanchez Galindo stated that “the new court decision will maintain the temporary suspension of all trials and commercial planting of GM maize in Mexico, ordered by the first court ruling in September.”
The latest decision also goes further in securing the first judgement by stating that even if a new court case is filed on this subject by Monsanto and its government supporters, the suspension shall remain in effect until the appeals court has made a final ruling.
The Mexican federal government had allowed trial crops of GM maize to be planted in Mexico since 2009 before the shock decision in September made by the Twelfth Federal District Court for Civil Matters of Mexico City. Judge Jaime Eduardo Verdugo J. cited “the risk of imminent harm to the environment” as the basis for the decision.
The Judge’s ruling means that multinationals such as Monsanto and Pioneer are legally banned from releasing GM maize into the Mexican countryside.
Father Miguel Concha said the Judge’s decision reflected a commitment to respect the Precautionary Principle expressed in various international treaties and statements on human rights. Concha emphasized that the government is obliged to protect the human rights of Mexicans against the economic interests of big business.
(2 votes, average: 3.50 out of 5)
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YES! Congratulations to a judge who got it right!
Mexico needs to ensure the enforcement of this ruling now. This great country has much to lose and Monsanto cannot be trusted not to deceive the Mexican people.
Congratulations indeed! And yes, stay alert.
Gmo seeds damage the soil, making it very difficult to sow the non-gmo seeds ever again! ……Mexico has a very good judge indeed. One who thinks on the planet’s future…. Also, China just refused three ships of gmo seeds….Bravo! Thanks for helping, our American politicians don’t want to help.
Las semillas transgenicas da~nan el suelo, haciendo que no se pueda ya sembrar la semilla normal… En verdad Mexico tiene muy buen juez, que piensa en el futuro del planeta… En China tambien, acaban de rechazar 3 barcos de semillas transgenicas… Bravo! Gracias por ayudarnos, nuestros politicos estadounidenses no quieren ayudarnos.
The seeds don’t necessarily do the damage it’s the astronomical amount of insecticides needed that damages the soil web. Bravo to Judge. Maize is inseparable from Mexican culture.
Desde Phoenix AZ mando mis felicitaciones a esta lucha contra el gigante Monsato. Soy una apasionada opositora de la invasion transgénica asi que MUCHA FELICIDADES y me enorgulleceque tengamos en nuestros pais gente que lucha por lo mas sagrado que tenemos que son nuestros alimentos.
Wow.
We in the USA need judges like that, capable of, or free to make independent, intelligent, thoughtful, non-politicized decisions.
Kudos to that judge, who considered things besides corporate interests and profits – and congrats to the Mexican people.
Mexico and the entire world has too much to lose if Monsanto ever had the chance to spread their seeds of death and poisons and decimate the diversity of the corn grown in Mexico. Then they would truly own and control the world’s food. It would be devastating, absolutely devastating. I’m not a praying kind of person but this is probably the one thing I pray for, the elimination of businesses like Monsanto and their GMO research and development and cancer causing chemical businesses. I also wish them nothing but ill. How has money and power blinded their CEO’s, scientists and employees to what they are doing and the consequences of what they are doing? What about their families, what do they think their grandfathers, grandmothers and fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters working for Monsanto are really doing? Why haven’t they come forward to ask questions or denounce what they are doing to the world? I suspect that there is a clause in their employment contracts that threatens the employee and their respective families with harm if they ever spoke out against these corporation, therefore the silence…
Monsanto is bad enough and I often wonder the same about what each individual associated with Monsanto feels about what the company is doing the planet and its citizens, but what about our Government? This is the thing that really gets me, because the Government is supposed to do what is in the best interest of the people, yet some of our governments are sacrificing us all along with the bees and the planet. What are they and their individual family members thinking?
KISS THAT JUDGE FOR ME!!!
Now why can’t US judges get it right? They need to take lesson from this Mexican Judge and less money from GMO companies!
Now the Mexicans need to take a capitalistic approach to this, and start selling Non-GMO grown food back to the U.S.
And to the rest of the world – GMO need to go away!
Hallelua!
Esto es realmente una buena noticia!!! Vamos a ver por cuánto tiempo podemos mantener a Monsanto fuera de México con sus semillas de la muerte..
Una vez que se usan sus químicos en un terreno, el terreno queda inservible para plantar otro producto., y Monsanto seria el dueño propietario de los químicos en el suelo, por lo tanto el dueño del terreno tendría que pagarle a Monsanto por usar sus químicos aun cuando ya no los use en sus terrenos de por vida, porque ya se encuentra en el terreno contaminado con los químicos.y no solo eso tendrían que venderle a Monsanto toda la semilla de sus cosechas y después comprarlas ya modificadas para la siembra y eso no seria opción del agricultor seria por ley.
Aparte de causar diferentes canceres, deformaciones, y un sin número de enfermedades. Nada mas basta ver lo que paso en Argentina, los niños nacían deformes y ya con enfermedades, mucha gente murió por esos químicos y Monsanto se deslindo de toda culpa, pero no dejo de usar esos químicos
This is really good news! Let’s see how long we can keep Monsanto out of Mexico with its seeds of death ..
Once their chemicals are used on land, the land is useless to plant another product., And Monsanto would own proprietary chemicals in the soil, so the landowner would have to pay Monsanto for using their chemical even when they no longer use them “for life”, because it is already in the contaminated soil.
Aside from causing different cancers, deformations, and a number of diseases. Just look what happened in Argentina, children were born deformed and with lots of diseases, many people died from these chemicals and Monsanto was release from blame, but it kept using those chemicals
Thank you Accion Colectiva, the intelligent judge, Father Concha and all who brought down these evil greedy companies. The messageis STAY OUT OF OUR FOOD! Praise for Mexico. We are in trouble here in the United States because of these evil invasive companies