You have to eliminate glyphosate but also find a healthy replacement, says AMLO

Nestor Jimenez and Emir Olivares

Newspaper La Jornada
Friday November 25, 2022, p. 8

After the resignation of the head of the National Agrifood Health, Safety and Quality Service (Senasica), Francisco Javier Trujillo Arriaga, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said that a relief was already neededand explained that his successor has not yet been defined.

Asked at his morning press conference about whether Trujillo was asked to resign, the president stated: I don’t know how the Secretary of Agriculture did it; he was the one who informed me in writing of the resignation that he had presented.

He indicated that the now former official I had been there for many years, 20, 30 years, and a replacement was already necessary. It has not yet been decided who will replace him. It has to be people with experience in the matter, in everything related to animal and plant health, all health care, but it has not yet been defined who will be there; soon we will solve it.

In response to questions in the Treasury Room, the head of the federal Executive also referred to the pause in the discussion in the Senate on the regulation of glyphosate.

López Obrador recalled that he signed to limit the importation of glyphosate and at the same time investigate the possibility of replacing it with a substance that is not harmful to healthbecause there is evidence that shows that the agrochemical affects health.

However, he explained that it is used constantly in agriculture to clean the grass. Whereas before the small producers used machetes or tarpalas to clean the grass in the rows of corn or beans, for the large areas covered by the transnationals that are dedicated to the agro-industry, this substance is used to advance quickly.

He stressed that to limit its use, an alternative must be found to replace it. For this, the National Council of Science and Technology “is doing an investigation to see if we can find an alternative.”

He insisted that in the framework of the discussion of the topic A controversy was generated because, it must also be said, transnational companies are behind glyphosate, who do not care about the health of the people or care little, what they care about is business, but we as public servants have to take care of the health of the people.

After comparing this case with the strong pressures that were registered by those who defended the importation of vapers, recommended that the companies no longer hire lobbyists to Mexico because, since there is no corruption and there are no more mocheswhereby they no longer work strategies of this type.