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Farm group sees Mexico’s GM-corn ban as an opportunity

A farm leader sees Mexico’s planned ban on genetically-modified corn as an opportunity. 

Joe Maxwell is the President of Farm Action and raises non-GM corn near Mexico, Missouri.  Maxwell is critical of Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack for defending genetically modified corn and not working to develop a non-GM market. “The Department of Agriculture during this time period has done nothing to help move farmers towards a premium market, more money in their pockets, and we think that’s a mistake and a failed, missed opportunity.”

Maxwell tells Brownfield the non-GM corn seed is available and giving Mexico the corn they want can give U.S. producers a premium market. “Mexico has been telling us this since 2020. This is not, they just woke up and heard about it, and we need to go forward, working with our trade partner Mexico, and we need to talk about a transition for more farmers to have a premium market opportunity in Mexico.”

Maxwell says growing non-GM corn can lead to premiums of fifty cents to a dollar a bushel more, which add up quickly and make farmers more profitable. “There is a growing domestic market for non-GM corn. We think that more farmers if they felt that they had a Department of Agriculture that was supporting exports of non-GM and not just GM corn would move in this direction.”

Maxwell says Mexico is not the first country to push back against GM corn, and it won’t be the last.