In 2020, the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access (COVAX) Facility was launched with the aim to grant all countries the opportunity for quick, fair and equitable access to coronavirus vaccines. However, the targets of the aforementioned initiative are being "missed" due to a lack of capital and the selfishness of some developed countries.

The initial aim of COVAX is to have two billion doses available by the end of 2021 to support the anti-pandemic efforts in countries. Yet, this ambitious plan is at risk of bankruptcy as statistics show that only 68 million vaccine doses from the COVAX scheme have been delivered thus far, meeting just 3.4 per cent of the plan. Meanwhile, by the end of May 2021, the world has recorded the distribution of 1.5 billion doses, but only about 0.3 per cent of them reached low-income countries.

World health experts point out that the aforementioned disappointing results are not attributed to the insufficient efforts of the people in charge of the COVAX program at the World Health Organization (WHO), but mainly due to a lack of funding and vaccine supplies, and the unwillingness of rich countries in sharing vaccines with poor ones.

COVAX was initially intended to be a non-profit financial attraction structure. Accordingly, rich countries make financial contributions to simultaneously research many different vaccines to find some effective vaccines and then provide them for free to 92 low-income countries who cannot afford to buy COVID-19 vaccines. To ensure its efficiency, this mechanism requires that a sufficient number of rich countries make investment and commit to receiving vaccines via COVAX. However, in fact, this initiative has not obtained the necessary funding to serve research and vaccine procurement in the initial stage. Many rich countries have even signed individual contracts to buy vaccines with manufacturers such as Pfizer and Moderna, thus delaying the implementation of large-scale vaccine production contracts in 2021 under the COVAX scheme.

A major problem hindering COVAX's vaccine supply efforts is the scarce supply of vaccines, which is partly attributed to the serious pandemic situation in India. The main vaccine supplier for COVAX is the Serum Institute of India, which is producing the AstraZeneca vaccine. However, with the strong outbreak of the disease in the South Asian country, the planned vaccine supply for COVAX had to be diverted to serve India's domestic demand.

The WHO and the global vaccine alliance Gavi -- representatives of organizations initiating the COVAX mechanism -- recently issued a statement that an additional U.S.$2 billion is needed to lift coverage of immunization programs to nearly 30 per cent. To secure doses for delivery through 2021, and into early 2022, COVAX needs the aforementioned sum by June 2 to lock in supplies. [By June 2 pledges for U.S.$2.4 billion had been received -- TML Ed. Note.] According to its original objectives, COVAX is expected to deliver two billion doses of vaccine worldwide in 2021, and 1.8 billion doses by early 2022. The "financial bottlenecks" are hindering COVAX's goals and efforts in vaccine delivery. Managers of the COVAX initiative also warned that if the current vaccine shortage is not urgently addressed, the "consequences could be catastrophic."

The facts mentioned above show that COVAX's plans to ensure "vaccine for everyone" and "leave no country behind" are missing their targets. This is not only a problem of COVAX founders and managers, but also a big problem globally, because variants of the coronavirus and new waves of the pandemic can penetrate and resurge in developed countries at any time. The only way for humanity to beat the current pandemic is for the governments and people of countries, especially developed ones, to share the difficulties, distribute vaccines appropriately, and join hands in the fight against COVID-19.

(May 29, 2021)

Urgent Need to Lift Sanctions Which Deprive Entire Countries of Protections Against COVID-19

The COVID-19 pharmacare pay-the-rich programs, worth billions of dollars and resulting in fortunes for certain individuals in control and ownership of Big Pharma, prove that any form of pharmacare must be all-sided or it will inevitably become yet another corrupt pay-the-rich scheme for privileged global oligarchs cynically using a necessary social program as cover. To endure and be effective and not be used to strengthen the oligarchs of Big Pharma, pharmacare must encompass the development, research, production and delivery of pharmaceuticals with the aim to serve the people, economy and society and not the global rich. This requires human-centred public enterprises to organize the necessary research, and develop, produce and deliver pharmaceuticals to the people without any aspect being infected with the imperialist aim of maximum private profit.

A true pharmacare program and health care system generally are required not only for individuals but for the economy and society to function and develop. The pandemic shows how crucial it has become to have social conditions that produce and defend a healthy population. If not, as has been revealed, parts of the economy and even the whole can grind to a halt. For workers to be readily available to work, the health of the people amidst a universal free health care system must be built and maintained.

The pandemic proves that to sustain the investments necessary for a proper health care system, including pharmacare and seniors' care, the value produced in the form of healthy workers has to be realized in a proper exchange within the economy. All big corporations in the economy of a certain size must pay for this value, which in fact they require for their existence. These large corporations must be held responsible to realize (pay for) the value evident in healthy workers and the capacity to work they bring to the health care system and the overall economy. Healthy and educated workers are the essential human factor to produce new value, without which the economy and society would collapse. The imperialist oligarchs in control refuse to admit this self-evident truth, and will continue to do so unless deprived of their ability to deprive the working people of what belongs to the people by right.

The pandemic is further exposing how untenable this situation has become and that it can only be resolved by establishing human-centred public enterprises capable of research and development and delivery of pharmaceuticals needed by the people. This modern approach would eliminate the making of maximum private profit for remedies and vaccines, which is now blocking the mass distribution of vaccines to deal with COVID-19. As long as this is in the hands of the imperialist cartels the world cannot be made safe.

Globalization has taken place at lightning speed to serve the cartels and their mania for maximum profit. In doing so they are incapable of dealing with the consequences of their actions. The fight for lives is the fight for rights and this is the alternative to what the governments in the service of the rich are doing with their pay-the-rich schemes and anti-social offensive.

Surge in Corporate Profits During Pandemic

Imperialist Vaccine Pharmacare Reaps
New Billionaires

Washington, DC, March 11, 2021

Big Pharma billionaires are cashing in as profits soar from sales of COVID-19 vaccines at exorbitant prices to governments around the world. A form of imperialist vaccine pharmacare in countries without independent human-centred pharmaceutical production has spread the COVID-19 vaccine of the global cartels to all but the poorest countries, pushing the cartels' profits and stock market prices to heights not seen before.

A handful of global pharma cartels have gained control over the thought material behind the vaccines and the vast productive capacity needed to produce the billions of doses. An international advocacy group called the People's Vaccine Alliance (PVA) warns that the various cartels of Big Pharma are using their control and connections with governments to dominate the supply and market price of vaccines. The cartels have pushed up their profits while making it harder for poor countries in particular to secure the stocks they need, while imperialist control blocks their ability to produce vaccines themselves.

The CEOs of Moderna and BioNTech top the list of nine Big Pharma oligarchs who have become billionaires with the rollout of vaccines against COVID-19. Many governments are using various forms of imperialist pharmacare to buy the vaccines from private producers and administer them free to the people. The free distribution of privately-purchased vaccines has vastly increased the sales and profits of the global Big Pharma enterprises, which in this case do not have to engage in their usual expensive advertising to push their drugs.

Forbes' Rich List has identified nine new Big Pharma billionaire oligarchs. They join a group of eight other pharma oligarchs who each already control social wealth in excess of a billion dollars. The nine new billionaires have a combined net wealth of $19.3 billion. PVA says the personal social wealth of those nine oligarchs alone would pay to vaccinate all people in low-income countries 1.3 times. Instead, countries identified as "poor" according to the United Nations have received only 0.2 per cent of the available global vaccine supply despite being home to 10 per cent of the world's population.

Big Pharma Billionaire Oligarchs

The newest Big Pharma billionaires are Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel and Ugur Sahin from BioNTech, with each now holding over $4 billion in social wealth. Others on Forbes' Big Pharma list of newest billionaires include three Moderna investors, the chair of a firm contracted to manufacture and package Moderna's product, and the three co-founders of the Chinese vaccine producer CanSino Biologics.

Eight other Big Pharma oligarchs, whose wealth had already topped the billion-dollar benchmark before the global pandemic hit, have seen their wealth grow significantly. The eight include oligarchs linked to China's Chongqing Zhifei Biological and Sinopharm, India's Cadila Healthcare and the Serum Institute of India, and holders of BioNTech stock.[1] The individuals named are joined in profiting from the pandemic by the global investor cartels, politely called "institutional investors," which own the lion's share of stock in the Pharma oligopolies.

Data from Forbes' The Richest People In The World list identifies the following Big Pharma oligarchs and the social wealth they control:

Stéphane Bancel, Moderna's CEO ($4.3 billion);
Ugur Sahin, CEO of BioNTech ($4 billion);
Timothy Springer, investor in Moderna ($2.2 billion);
Noubar Afeyan, Moderna's Chairman ($1.9 billion);
Juan López-Belmonte Encina, Chairman of ROVI, a company with a deal to manufacture and package the Moderna vaccine ($1.8 billion);
Robert Langer, investor in Moderna ($1.6 billion);
Zhu Tao, co-founder of CanSino Biologics ($1.3 billion);
Qiu Dongxu, co-founder of CanSino Biologics ($1.2 billion); and
Mao Huinhoa, co-founder of CanSino Biologics ($1 billion).

In addition, the eight existing billionaires with extensive investments in the COVID-19 vaccine pharma corporations have seen their combined wealth increase by $32.2 billion. PVA remarks that this amount is more than enough to fully vaccinate everyone in India. The eight include Cyrus Poonawalla, founder of the Serum Institute of India, whose wealth grew to $12.7 billion in 2021 from $8.2 billion last year, and Pankaj Patel who controls Cadila Healthcare. He saw his wealth expand to $5 billion this year from $2.9 billion in 2020.

Note

Mergers and Acquisitions Occurring at Record Clip

Mergers and acquisitions (M&As) are a factor in the imperialist economy further concentrating social wealth and power in fewer hands. The media report global takeovers are proceeding at a record pace. Seventeen of these deals since 2020 comprise transactions of more than $20 billion with two of the largest involving Canadian-based companies.[1] The largest is Canadian National Railway's acquisition of Kansas City Southern estimated at $29 billion. This acquisition concentrates the productive power of the two railways to become the largest in North America with operations throughout the continent. It appears to be part of the strategic aim of U.S. imperialism of integrating both Canada and Mexico into U.S. homeland security and its war economy with a secure rail transportation corridor. The railway merger dovetails with President Biden's decision to cancel the Keystone XL pipeline as more Alberta oil will now be shipped to the U.S. via rail cars. Some commentators said this fact alone pushed up the value of the merger, resulting in greater potential profits for owners such as Vanguard from higher stock valuations for both monopolies involved. It should be pointed out that global investment cartels such as Vanguard have ownership stakes in both these railway monopolies and manipulate and profit from M&As both as buyer and seller.

Another significant planned acquisition is between two Canadian telecommunication monopolies, Rogers Communications Inc. and Shaw Communications Inc. The takeover of Shaw is valued at $26 billion. These two monopolies already have overlapping ownership and operations and will become the largest telecommunications monopoly in Canada, slightly larger in enterprise value than BCE (Bell) and Telus, consolidating the control of Big Tech over the lives of Canadians.

Another merger involving the Canadian economy is a three-way $12.4 billion deal including Toronto-based insurer Intact Financial Corp., a European Danish partner called Tryg A/S, and British monopoly RSA Insurance Group PLC.

Globally, monopolies launched $1.3 trillion in M&As in the first three months of 2021. "This [is] the strongest opening period for deal making since records began," said Matt Toole, director of data service Refinitiv in a Globe and Mail article.[2]

Not only are deals being announced, but global investment cartels such as hedge funds are increasing their stock ownership in certain companies in anticipation of seeing share prices of those companies soar when the "inevitable" M&A occurs, which they themselves can manipulate and push along.

The Necessity for a New Direction for the Economy
and Democratic Renewal

The article in the Globe and Mail speculates, "The takeover frenzy is fuelled by low interest rates, banks' willingness to lend and soaring stock market valuations." It quotes investment banker Ian Macdonell saying, "Boards [of companies] realize the competitive landscape is changing and it's harder to be a regional player, in North America or globally, so if they can't be consolidators, they are sellers. Takeover activity will continue until the credit market tightens, the economic outlook weakens or we get a significant stock market correction."

The Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) believes the Globe's speculation is disinformation to confuse the root cause of imperialist globalization where the rich become richer not only with M&As but through the war economy and domination of other countries and the global plunder of the value working people produce. The constant wars and increasing autocratic control of the global economy in the hands of an oligarchy underscore the necessity for a new direction for the economy and democratic renewal to form an anti-war government.

The M&A frenzy within the concrete conditions of the economy does not arise from "low interest rates, banks' willingness to lend and soaring stock market valuations." Such an analysis fails to explore the aim of the oligarchs in control and what is driving them to engage in such practices, and the consistent trend under imperialism towards concentration of social wealth and power in fewer hands as the rich fatten themselves on the wealth created by others.

The Globe's disinformation suggests that banks and their "willingness to lend" to finance M&As are somehow independent from the "low interest rates and soaring stock market valuations" and the M&As themselves. That is not the case. The banks and other financial institutions profit enormously through fat fees from organizing and arranging the deals and in other aspects of M&As.

The Globe's analysis describes various features of the imperialist economy but fails to analyze why these things occur. M&As arise out of the imperialist economy, as part of its parasitism and decay, to find maximum profit through the exchange and seizure of already produced value without going through any new production process and circulation of social product. Larger companies take over smaller or willing ones or force them into bankruptcy while the oligarchy roams the world for targets and wealth to pillage through bullying and war.

The ongoing imperialist tendency is to concentrate social wealth and economic and political power in fewer hands and to wage war for control and profit. These features are constant regardless of whether the "banks are willing to lend" or not. In fact, the banks and other financial institutions such as hedge funds are fully involved and integrated into the entire imperialist process as lenders, buyers, sellers, owners, organizers and war profiteers.

The entire process reflects the reality that nation-building is a feature of the past and that imperialist globalization, the politics of neo-liberalism, a war economy and nation-wrecking have seized control. If you delve deeply into the largest M&As, you will find that most of the private interests involved are one and the same or at least have the same aim and interest in seeing the M&A completed, or, if forced upon them, to emerge with the best possible terms. As said, the same private interests are often represented as lenders, buyers, sellers, owners, organizers and profiteers.

M&As form part of what the oligarchs call "unlocking shareholder value and shareholder value creation" and as such serve their fundamental aim to make maximum private profit in the fastest possible time. They have nothing to do with building a peaceful stable economy that serves the people, meets their needs and claims, and can be mobilized to humanize the social and natural environment. They are part of the global competition and constant wars for hegemony to become dominant in wealth and political power.

The drive to seize social wealth and power leads the competing oligarchs to enrol both public and private military might to achieve their aims to seize productive forces, markets, regions, and workers to exploit and to block or destroy any and all competitors or those who resist. The entire aim and practice of the oligarchs is contrary to the demand of humanity to live in peace and have economies that serve the people within a spirit of mutual benefit and development under their control.

A feature of the concentration of wealth and power in fewer hands is the continuous expansion of the proletariat as the largest social class. A consciousness develops that the economy is already socialized and in antagonistic contradiction with the private and autocratic control of the ruling oligarchy. The necessity for the actual producers to gain control over the already socialized economy, productive forces and social product becomes a rallying cry for change to bring the aim, control and direction of the economy into conformity with its already socialized character for the betterment of all humanity and Mother Earth.

Notes

1. List of largest mergers and acquisitions. The graph shows the largest M&As from 1879 to today. It highlights the expansion of U.S. imperialism, as most of the largest M&As during the twentieth century involve U.S. monopolies. The graph also shows the acceleration of the concentration of social wealth in the twenty-first century. 

2. Globe and Mail article by Andrew Willis: "Mergers and acquisitions activity has exploded. Here's why -- and the reasons it will continue for the foreseeable future."

The Aluminium Association of Canada (AAC) submitted its "pre-budget recommendations" in a letter to the Quebec government on February 12. The letter is in fact a warning shot that aluminum workers are being targeted for attack through what is called 4.0 digitized automation.[1] To rub salt in the wound, the AAC demands governments finance this assault through pay-the-rich schemes and changes in certain regulations.

Aluminum workers and their unions have not been consulted on the AAC proposals that seek government financing to modernize the production process and reduce their ranks. Nor have they been consulted as to how workers, if made redundant through automation, are to be supported and trained for other work and guaranteed livelihoods at their existing standard of living. Automation conducted in the fashion proposed in the AAC letter with the support of public funds is unacceptable. It would result in the global cartels strengthening their domination and control over the sector and the working class in Quebec and Canada and draining the country of value. It must not pass!

A different direction must and can be found! A good first step is for workers to speak out against making the workers pay for modernization in order to pay the rich. When the workers speak out, they find out the extent of the fraud and corruption which is in the works. When they speak out the falsity of the arguments provided by the rich gets exposed. How untrue they are gets exposed. The rich think they can command the economy which is not the case. Their demand for more is never-ending. Furthermore, governments can only get away with schemes to pay the rich if they are not held to account. Now that the entire economy needs to be modernized is a time to hold them to account.

Note

1. Wikipedia describes Industry 4.0 or the Fourth Industrial Revolution as "the ongoing automation of traditional manufacturing and industrial practices, using modern smart technology."

Rally in Prince George, November 12, 2020 calling for an end to Glyphosate spraying

Is it a good idea to pick and eat wild raspberries and blueberries in forest cutblocks in the Central and Northern Interior of British Columbia? Not if these lands have been sprayed with the weed-killer glyphosate sometime in the last few years. And the same caution holds true for wildlife such as moose and bears who, besides berries, consume large quantities of fireweed, willow and dogwood shoots, all of which can contain low levels of glyphosate residue for relatively long periods of time.

These are the conclusions that can be drawn from a recently published research study carried out by a team of University of Northern BC scientists, N. Botten, L.J. Wood, and J.R. Werner. Their findings go directly against the message repeated by the manufacturer of glyphosate, Bayer-Monsanto, that the weed-killer quickly disappears from the plants and general environment after it is sprayed and is not harmful to humans or wildlife.[1]

Currently, certain big forest companies helicopter spray upwards of 17,000 hectares of BC forests (especially in the Interior) with glyphosate every year and this has been going on since the early 1980s. The total area sprayed amounts to 1.3 million hectares either sprayed or manually brushed. The aim is to kill off broad-leafed trees like birch and aspen and facilitate the growth of the so-called "money trees" spruce and pine. The forest companies are obligated to do this under provincial government regulation.

The results of this research study are disturbing. For example, one year after glyphosate treatment, 26 per cent of raspberry and blueberry fruit samples taken from cut blocks in the research study would be "deemed unfit for human consumption" if assessed by Canadian Food Inspection Agency standards. Glyphosate and AMPA (the metabolite derived from it) residues were detected in the fruits for at least one full year after spraying. In addition, low levels of weed killer residue persisted in raspberry shoots, fireweed shoots, and willow shoots for at least six years and in fireweed roots for twelve years.

Indigenous people have said for years that eating glyphosate-sprayed berries and medicinal plants has sickened them, and there are anecdotal reports of others being affected also. The long-term effect on wildlife is unknown.

In the U.S., Canada, and elsewhere, literally thousands of lawsuits have been launched by individuals who claim that they have contracted cancer and other illnesses because of prolonged exposure to glyphosate, with one terminally ill groundskeeper being awarded $289 million in damages in a California court. As a result, the Bayer-Monsanto corporation has agreed to pay $10.9 billion into a fund to settle the thousands of other court cases.

What has been revealed in these legal proceedings is that Bayer-Monsanto has been systematically recruiting scientists to publish studies that defend the use of glyphosate, going so far as to "ghost write" a number of research studies under their names. Unfortunately, Canadian and American government authorities are basing their decisions to allow widespread glyphosate spraying on such deeply flawed studies.

In BC, there is broad opposition by farmers, trappers, foresters and others to glyphosate spraying. An organization, Stop the Spray BC has been founded specifically to oppose the widespread spraying of the weed-killer. The chemical has been banned for use on crown lands in Quebec, and banned completely in Germany, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam and other countries.

Yet the BC provincial government continues to authorize the helicopter spraying of glyphosate across our Interior forests, which are already suffering from pine and spruce beetle epidemics, overcutting, erosion, flooding, fires and a host of other problems.

Now berry picking -- a pastime that many people in the Central Interior and North have enjoyed since time immemorial -- is threatened.

Note

1. N. Botten, L.J. Wood, & J.R. Werner,  "Glyphosate remains in forest plant tissues for a decade or more, Forest Ecology and Management, 2021. 

(Photos: H. Petersen)

Today, the ruling elites continue their reckless and socially irresponsible pursuit of maximum profit and push their pay-the-rich schemes, all the while claiming to be concerned for the future of Mother Earth. It is a sordid and profane show of buffoonery to make light of such grave matters. A case in point is the forest industry in Quebec, which considers Quebec's forests to be "trees to harvest," the workers costs, and Indigenous peoples obstacles to their plunder.

Today, the forest industry is very much alive to one extent or another in 157 Quebec municipalities. In the Outaouais, for example, a region built on the wood industry, it still accounts for 50 per cent of manufacturing production. The problem is not wood-cutting per se, but rather the historical access that companies have had to our forests and their indifference to and covering up of the actual harm that this is causing to the natural and social ecosystems.

It's not that the alarm has not already been sounded. In 1999, the documentary L'erreur boréale, by Quebec artist and spokesperson for Action boréale Richard Desjardins was aired, expressing concern over the dangers of clear-cutting and the blind destruction of our forests. The film had a momentary impact in that, among other things, the Quebec government at the time set up the Coulombe Commission which was to look into the matter. More than 20 years later, Action boréale still affirms that the situation is critical and that the Quebec government still considers our forests to be the "lumber yard" of forestry companies. Recently, 67 Quebec scientists, in an open letter, denounced the "industrial" vision of the Ministry of Forests, Wildlife and Parks and called for the creation of a "national observatory," independent of government so as to have a better assessment of the condition of our public forests.

The situation is such that forestry companies speak eloquently about measures taken to fight carbon emissions and to "reduce their environmental footprint" and in the next breath demand governments "increase the allowable cut," meaning provide even greater latitude to cut more trees at further reduced costs. Now, with the high price of lumber, the only "green" they are concerned about is the colour of money. In this respect, the Quebec government -- always at the disposal of the wood industry -- presented its Strategic Plan 2019-2023 in which it announced increased harvesting of Quebec forests in the upcoming decades which, it claims, will contribute to "the fight against climate change" and to "economic development." It also announced with its recent budget that important cuts were to be made to the Ministry of Forests, Wildlife and Parks.

As for the forest industry, it goes from one crisis to another, from one plant closure to another. In the Outaouais, the Fortress plant in Thurso has been closed for more than a year-and-a-half, one of a number of plants that have been shut down in Quebec. Much of the wood industry has always been dominated by foreign -- especially U.S. -- private interests, and today it is even more concentrated in the hands of "asset management" companies for whom the wood sector is solely a means to make shareholders rich without assuming the least responsibility towards communities, the environment or workers.

Ask the White Birch workers of Stadacona. A few years ago when the company went under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act, the plant was purchased by Black Diamond, one such asset management company. Black Diamond proceeded with "restructuring" that, along with a number of layoffs and setbacks in working conditions, cut dramatically into the pensions to which workers had contributed all their lives. In spite of numerous obstacles and total government indifference, these retirees are still struggling in defence of their dignity and to reclaim what is theirs by right.

In the case of Fortress, its closure has had an impact on many other plants and sawmills in the region. There is a need to take a step back and consider the problem in its entirety, as an organic entity in which human beings and nature are interconnected, and where the main preoccupation for workers and communities is to act responsibly towards society and nature. For example, certain municipalities and organizations are recommending that the medicinal and food value of forests be considered. The pressure against this is to impose the vision that the problem is simply of timber supply. This pressure can be seen in the report of an "intervention cell" set up to study the crisis in the forest industry in the Outaouais and the Laurentides. The proposals put forward are basically aimed at "improving activities related to supply in these regions" and "taking advantage of the value-creating potential offered by the forestry sector in these regions." It also asks that the Quebec government "do what is necessary to bring about a breakthrough in the negotiations with the Algonquin community of Lac-Barrière."

A clear line of demarcation is being drawn. On the one hand, there are the private interests and governments who want to keep the decision-making power firmly in their hands so as to continue to act unilaterally at the expense of the natural and social environment. On the other, there are the workers, the Indigenous peoples and the Quebec people, especially the youth, who have expressed in numerous ways their opposition to the destruction of their natural and social ecosystems. They are taking into account the real harm being caused to Mother Earth, including the very social fabric, and want to be an integral part of decision-making on matters that have such life-changing impacts on their immediate environment and the future of humanity itself.

Mexico is the ancient home of corn. Over thousands of years, the Mayans and other Meso-Americans developed corn (also known as maize) into a crop, using its many varieties as a staple food to fuel their civilizations.[1] It is this sacred food which is under threat today from multinational chemical companies and the U.S. government who are demanding that Mexico keep its doors open to the weed killer glyphosate and genetically modified corn.

In December 2020, responding to farmers, Indigenous peoples and others, Mexican President Andres Manuel López Obrador issued a decree phasing out glyphosate by 2024. The decree states that "in recent years, different scientific investigations have warned that said chemical has harmful effects on health, both in humans and in some animal species, and has been identified as a probable carcinogen in humans by the International Agency for Research on Cancer."

In that regard, Mexico is not alone in its concerns. People in the U.S and Canada have launched thousands of lawsuits and protests against Bayer-Monsanto (the giant multinational which manufactures glyphosate) on the grounds that the chemical caused cancer and other illnesses. For example, a California school groundskeeper who used glyphosate in his duties was recently awarded $289 million in damages by a jury after he contracted a terminal case of non-Hodgkins lymphoma. Bayer-Monsanto has even been forced to announce that it will pay $10.9 billion into a fund to settle tens of thousands of court cases.

Glyphosate is a chemical that "inhibits photosynthesis (the process of making new tissue) in plants, making it a very effective weed killer."[2] Plants not resistant to its effects shrivel up and die. Around the world, about 820 million kilograms are used every year with a large portion in North America. The weed killer was first developed by Monsanto back in 1974 and marketed as "Roundup." But production really took off after the corporation introduced "Roundup Ready" crops in 1996.

These crops, including corn, soy and canola, were genetically modified to tolerate glyphosate. Thus, fields could be drenched with the chemical, killing weeds but allowing the cash crops to survive. In addition, it is also used to spray golf courses, school playgrounds, and other venues, as well as forest lands in the Interior of BC so as to kill off broad leaf species of trees and promote the "money trees" of spruce and pine.[3]

Today, much of the grain and pulse crops in Canada and the U.S. are dependent in one way or another on the spraying of glyphosate. The U.S. exports about $3 billion of genetically modified, glyphosate-tolerant corn every year to Mexico which makes Mexico dependent on a foreign country for much of its basic food. This corn, which is mainly used for livestock feed, is heavily subsidized by the U.S. government making it hard for Mexican farmers to compete.

As a result of its widespread usage, the chemical seeps into just about every corner of North American life, whether food, soil, water or air. For example, in 2015-2016, glyphosate residue was detected in 36.6 per cent of grain products, 47.4 per cent of bean, pea and lentil, and 11 per cent of soy products. Over 31 per cent of cereals for infants contain the chemical. It has also been found in beer and other products. The problem is compounded in Mexico because human and livestock consumption of corn is high. An added problem for Mexico is that this imported genetically modified corn from the U.S. threatens the diverse native species of corn developed over the centuries by Mexican farmers. For this and other reasons, the Mexican presidential decree will also block the importation of genetically modified corn by 2024.

According to President López Obrador, the purpose of the decree is to place "political power first and foremost at the service of the public interest" and the "general welfare of the population," and "not private interests." It is to be "congruent with the agricultural traditions of Mexico"[4] and to achieve self-sufficiency and food sovereignty.

In response, successive U.S. administrations have put pressure on the Mexican government to revoke the decree. Various leaked documents have exposed how top U.S. government officials have worked closely with Bayer-Monsanto to force Mexico to back down.[5] This happened to the government of Thailand which some observers believe reversed a ban on glyphosate after pressure from U.S. officials and Bayer-Monsanto.[6] However, so far, Mexico has not changed its position despite threats that provisions in the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade deal (USMCA) could be used against it, as well as other means. Seventeen legal challenges have been filed against the planned ban, but none yet have been successful.

It is indeed one of the great ironies of the current model of corporate-dominated globalization that the very country that created cultivated corn for the people of the world is now having an adulterated, toxic version shoved down its throat.

Notes

2. Environmental Defence, "What's in your lunch. How glyphosate finds its way into your children's food."

3. Stop the Spray BC.

4. Pesticide Action Network, "Mexico ousts glyphosate and GM corn."

5. Kenny Stancil, "Emails reveal U.S. officials joined with agrochemical giant Bayer to stop Mexico's glyphosate ban," Common Dreams, February 16, 2021.

6. Patpicha Tanakasempipat, "Bayer campaign against glyphosate ban revealed," Bangkok Post, September 18, 2020.