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In a move steeped in cultural nationalism and political defiance, Mexico officially banned the growth of genetically modified (GMO) corn, placing native maize into the Mexican constitution as an emblem of national pride. The constitutional amendment, voted through Congress and signed on by a majority of state legislatures, now sits in President Claudia Sheinbaum’s hands for her formal signature.
“Grain is Mexico,” Sheinbaum said, linking the overhaul to both national sovereignty and biodiversity and cultural identity. The change follows decades of resistance to US biotech corporations and a broad wave of nationalism fueled by commerce tensions and moves by former U.S. President Donald Trump that included tariffs and threats of armed intervention (Los Angeles Times, Mar. 6, 2025).
The new law addresses GMO corn seed, not imports, to sidestep a 2023 trade ruling that would have blocked a broader prohibition of GMO corn under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). However, the bill is a test for U.S. agribusiness, which exports roughly $5 billion in GMO corn annually to Mexico—largely as animal feed.
The critics claim it’s politically motivated and unscientific. US officials and biotech companies claim GMO crops are safe and essential to world food supplies. But Mexican scientists, like former science council head María Elena Álvarez-Buylla, are sounding the alarm of ecological risk and cross-pollination that will threaten the country’s thousands of heirloom varieties of maize.
Studies at Mexico’s National Autonomous University indicate GMO traces in 90% of tortillas consumed in urban centers. Some experts also contend American corn is free of nutrients and associated with health risks, something U.S. producers dispute.
Corn’s roots in Mexico run deep, and archaeological history goes back 9,000 years to its domestication. Its significance to food, economy, and identity is such that any assault on its purity becomes an issue of national concern. As Octavio Paz succinctly expressed it, “The invention of corn by Mexicans is only comparable to man’s invention of fire.”
Tufts University researcher Timothy Wise summed up local sentiment: “Mexicans have long determined they don’t want genetically modified corn. No one wants to eat it.”
A passage of the amendment is a political and symbolic move—more sovereignty than agriculture.
