A commerce dispute places a highlight on meals sovereignty, GMOs, a controversial weedkiller, public well being, and the destiny of Mexico’s iconic white-corn flatbread

Do nations have the suitable to find out their very own meals insurance policies? Can they make legal guidelines to safeguard home agriculture, public well being, the setting, and the genetic integrity of the nationwide weight loss program?

If sovereignty means something, the reply to those questions is sure. Defending meals provides is an historical cornerstone of the social contract, one enshrined in 21st century commerce pacts together with the US-Mexico-Canada Settlement, the successor to NAFTA. In December 2023, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador invoked this proper when he banned genetically modified corn for human consumption and phased out the usage of glyphosate, GM corn’s signature herbicide, which the World Well being Group calls “in all probability carcinogenic to people.” The measure, mentioned López Obrador, was essential to ensure Mexicans’ “rights to well being and a wholesome setting, native corn, [and] guarantee a nutritious, enough, and high quality weight loss program.”

If GM corn and glyphosate pose well being dangers to people, as instructed by a rising physique of analysis, then these dangers are magnified in Mexico, the place the nationwide weight loss program revolves round minimally processed white corn, particularly within the type of its iconic flatbread, the tortilla. Corn meal accounts for greater than 60 % of the common Mexican’s each day energy and protein, which is roughly 10 occasions the US common and places Mexicans at 10 occasions the danger.