“It makes it easier for the United States to challenge any rule or regulation or process governing biotech crops that it contends are illegal trade barriers,” says Woodall. “It is designed to provide a brand new avenue of attack against regulations … and enshrine Trump’s deregulatory purge into a trade deal that will outlast this administration.”
Over 8,000 years ago farmers in present-day Mexico first domesticated corn from a wild grass, teosinte. Corn holds incredible cultural, economic, and ecological significance in Mexico to this day. Mexico has maintained a vast array of diverse corn species, with 64 recognized strains, called landraces, and over 21,000 regionally adapted varieties. Over two-thirds of Mexican corn farmers still save their own seeds and plant native strains.
This diverse genetic trove is “absolutely critical to modern crop breeding,” says Tim Wise, the Director of Policy Research at the Global Development and Environment Institute at Tufts University. “It’s a critical natural resource for the modern world,” he says. When researchers look for drought-resistant strains or corn that can requires less fertilizer, they turn to Mexico’s native corn gene pool.
Yep, it's all about deregulation. This article posted is by Claire Kelloway from Food & Power who I have featured here many times and is very authoritative. She runs a DC institute started by LEAH DOUGLAS who is also a journalist with an amazing body of work in the area of food, farming and policy. I recommend reading the entire short article and also perusing other topics in there archives at the above links.
http://www.foodandpower.net/2018/10/10/mexicos-native-corn-varieties-threatened-by-new-nafta/#bookmark/0/
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