Webinar Invitation: Mexico’s transition from ag biotech to agroecology and challenges from U.S. trade policy

Mexico’s transition from ag biotech to agroecology and challenges from U.S. trade policy

Date and Time

Wednesday, March 30, 2022
11 a.m.-1 p.m. CDT 
Translations: EN-ES

REGISTER HERE. 

Descripción del seminario web en español disponible aquí.

Webinar Description

The Mexican government plans to eliminate the use of glyphosate and imports of GMO corn and cotton by 2024 as part of its broader program for food self-sufficiency. U.S. agribusinesses are pushing back, falsely asserting that the new rules violate provisions in USMCA.

This assertion of national sovereignty could enhance biodiversity and human health. Depending on how it is implemented, it could also be an important step in a transition to agroecology. Agroecology encourages systems of food production that look at production, processing, distribution and consumption and consider environmental, socioeconomic, cultural and political contexts. Fundamental to principles of agroecology is respect for basic human rights and the importance of respect for the agency of people.

What does the Mexican experience tell us about how public policy and citizen action can support a transition to agroecology? What policy space is needed to enable those changes, whether in Mexico or the U.S.?

Organizers: Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) & Asociación Nacional de Empresas Comercializadoras de Productores del Campo (ANEC)Moderator: Karen Hansen-Kuhn, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy

Speakers:

• Jennifer Clapp, University of Waterloo, author of Explaining Growing Glyphosate Use: The Political Economy of Herbicide-Dependent Agriculture
• Víctor Suarez Carrera, Undersecretary of Agriculture of Mexico: principal goals and elements of the program to phase out glyphosate and GMOs and advance food self-sufficiency
• Leticia Lopez, ANEC: agroecological solutions and the need for change in agriculture policy
• Fernando Bejarano, Red de Acción sobre Plaguicidas y Alternativas en México (RAPAM, Mexico´s Pesticide Action Network): civil society campaigns against hazardous pesticides and transgenic corn and the challenges to enforce the glyphosate phase out in Mexico.
• Sharon Treat, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy: what does USMCA say about agricultural biotechnology?
• Amy van Saun, Center for Food Safety: legal challenges to EPA’s approval of glyphosate