In Mexico City Thousands Protest Bid by US Firms to Plant GMO Corn Amy Goodman & Juan Gonzalez - Democracy NOW!
go to original February 1, 2013

Thousands of campesinos marched in the capital Thursday to protest the planting of genetically modified corn by U.S. corporations. The U.S. firms Monsanto, DuPont and Dow have applied for permits to grow millions of acres of genetically modified corn in northern Mexico.

But opponents say GMO crops will inflict poverty and forced migration on indigenous people and peasants, some of whom have been farming corn for generations. The National Union of Autonomous Regional Peasant Organizations has condemned "a development model that only benefits a tiny minority, a minority which includes the transnational corporations that today conspire to appropriate for themselves one of the greatest heritages of our peoples: MAIZE," they said.

Protesters have been on a rotating hunger strike against GMOs for more than a week. On Thursday they called for President Enrique Peña Nieto to reject the permits.

Says hunger striker Francisco Jiménez Murillo: "We believe that the only relation that we, as the growers, have with Mother Earth are the natural seeds. We have to remember that Mexico has 60 distinct varieties of corn that we have cultivated over the last 10,000 years, and with this, we have fed the world. It is a struggle for the life and health of our country."

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