When I arrived in Mexico City nine years ago to research the effort by citizen groups to stop multinational seed companies from planting genetically modified corn in Mexico, the groups had just won an injunction to suspend planting permits. Monsanto and the other companies, supported by the Mexican government at the time, appealed and the farmer, consumer and environmental groups were awaiting a judicial ruling.
I asked their lead lawyer, Rene Sánchez Galindo, how he thought they could hope to overcome the massive economic and legal power of the companies and government. He said with a smile, “The judge surely eats tacos. Everyone here eats tacos. They know maize is different.”
He was right. The next day the judge upheld the precautionary injunction. And he is still right: Ten years after the Demanda Colectiva, a collective of 53 people from 22 organizations, filed their class-action suit to stop GM corn, the precautionary injunction remains in effect despite some 130 company appeals.
Today in Mexico City, the Pax Natura Foundation, founded in 1996 to “create peace with nature on all levels for the preservation of life on this beautiful Planet Earth,” is presenting its annual environmental prize to the Demanda Colectiva.
Previous prizewinners include biologist Jane Goodall and former Costa Rican president Oscar Arias. The foundation selected the Demanda Colectiva to join such esteemed company, according to president and founder Randall Tolpinrud, for its “courage and wisdom to resist the ravages of industrial agriculture that degrades the land, destroys biodiversity and encourages increased carbon emissions."
The ceremony will take place October 16 at the Franz Mayer Museum in Mexico City at 11:30 am local time. It can be streamed live….
Read the full article on Food Tank.