{"id":20715,"date":"2021-02-18T14:21:21","date_gmt":"2021-02-18T13:21:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/navdanyainternational.org\/?p=20715"},"modified":"2021-02-18T13:58:28","modified_gmt":"2021-02-18T12:58:28","slug":"revealed-monsanto-owner-and-us-officials-pressured-mexico-to-drop-glyphosate-ban","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/navdanyainternational.org\/fr\/revealed-monsanto-owner-and-us-officials-pressured-mexico-to-drop-glyphosate-ban\/","title":{"rendered":"Revealed: Monsanto owner and US officials pressured Mexico to drop glyphosate ban"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Carey Gillam – The Guaardian, 16 February 2021 | Source<\/a><\/p>\n

Internal government emails reveal Monsanto<\/a> owner Bayer AG and industry lobbyist CropLife America have been working closely with US officials to pressure Mexico into abandoning its intended ban on glyphosate, a pesticide linked to cancer that is the key ingredient in Monsanto\u2019s Roundup weedkillers.<\/p>\n

The moves to protect glyphosate shipments to Mexico<\/a> have played out over the last 18 months, a period in which Bayer was negotiating an $11bn settlement of legal claims brought by people in the US who say they developed non-Hodgkin lymphoma due to exposure to the company\u2019s glyphosate-based products.<\/p>\n

The pressure on Mexico is similar to actions<\/a> Bayer and chemical industry lobbyists took to kill a glyphosate ban planned by Thailand in 2019. Thailand officials had also cited concerns for public health in seeking to ban the weedkiller, but reversed course after US threats about trade disruption.<\/p>\n

So far the collaborative campaign to get the Mexican government to reverse its policy does not appear to be working.<\/p>\n

The Mexican president, Andr\u00e9s Manuel L\u00f3pez Obrador, has given farmers until 2024 to stop using glyphosate. On 31 December, the country published a \u201cfinal decree\u201d<\/a> calling not only for the end of the use of glyphosate but also a phase-out<\/a> of the planting and consumption of genetically engineered corn, which farmers often spray with glyphosate, a practice that often leaves residues of the pesticide in finished food products.<\/p>\n

The moves are for the \u201cpurpose of contributing to food security and sovereignty\u201d and \u201cthe health of Mexican men and women\u201d, according to the Mexican government<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But Mexico\u2019s concern for the health of its citizens has triggered fear in the United States for the health of agricultural exports, especially Bayer\u2019s glyphosate products.<\/p>\n

The emails reviewed by the Guardian come from the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) and other US agencies. They detail worry and frustration with Mexico\u2019s position. One email makes a reference to staff within L\u00f3pez Obrador\u2019s administration as \u201cvocal anti-biotechnology activists\u201d<\/a>, and another email states that Mexico\u2019s health agency (Cofepris) is \u201cbecoming a big time problem\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Internal USTR communications lay out how the agrochemical industry is \u201cpushing\u201d for the US to \u201cfold this issue<\/a>\u201d into the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA)<\/a> trade deal that went into effect 1 July. The records then show the USTR does exactly that, telling Mexico its actions on glyphosate and genetically engineered crops raise concerns \u201cregarding compliance\u201d with USMCA.<\/p>\n

Citing discussions with CropLife, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) joined in the effort, discussing in an inter-agency email<\/a> \u201chow we could use USMCA to work through these issues\u201d.<\/p>\n

READ FULL ARTICLE<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Thumbnail Image: A protester wears a mask in the shape of corn, during a march against Monsanto in Mexico City. Photograph: Stringer Mexico\/Reuters<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Carey Gillam – The Guaardian, 16 February 2021 | Source Internal government emails reveal Monsanto owner Bayer AG and industry lobbyist CropLife America have been working closely with US officials to pressure Mexico into abandoning its intended ban on glyphosate, a pesticide linked to cancer that is the key ingredient in Monsanto\u2019s Roundup weedkillers. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20716,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pgc_sgb_lightbox_settings":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[162,50],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in-the-news","category-news","thematic_area-corporate-free-future","thematic_area-food-for-health","thematic_area-free-trade","thematic_area-poison-free-future"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/navdanyainternational.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/042633-monsanto-021621.jpg","wpml_translations":[{"language_code":"en","post_id":20715,"original":true}],"custom_fields":{"_edit_lock":["1613652973:2"],"_edit_last":["2"],"_wpml_media_featured":["1"],"_wpml_media_duplicate":["1"],"_thumbnail_id":["20716"],"wpl_sidebar_option":["on"],"wpl_featured_image_post":["off"],"wpl_share_buttons":["on"],"_wpml_media_has_media":["1"]},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9KkNM-5o7","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/navdanyainternational.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/navdanyainternational.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/navdanyainternational.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/navdanyainternational.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/navdanyainternational.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20715"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/navdanyainternational.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20715\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20724,"href":"https:\/\/navdanyainternational.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20715\/revisions\/20724"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/navdanyainternational.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/navdanyainternational.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/navdanyainternational.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/navdanyainternational.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}