Dear Editor: In response to Dan Chantre’s letter, when Mexican President Felipe Calderon left, he slammed the door on Mexican farmers.

He opened up the destruction of Mexican farms. He opened up the doors to Monsanto, Due Pont and Downey Chemicals, now on the prowl for new land to promote their genetically engineered crops. He opened up this door to the corporate state of America.

When genetically engineered corn was introduced in the mid 90s, Mexico was inhospitable to this crop. The country’s National Biosecurity Commission established a (non-legally binding) moratorium on genetically engineered corn in 1998 as a means to safeguard what is considered to be the planet’s cradle of maize cultivation.

Introducing genetically engineered crops meant the death knell for Mexican farmers. And it became the death knell for all those Mexicans, farms destroyed, but what it meant to us was cheap labor. With farms destroyed they came across our borders.

Cheap labor? These Mexicans work in the slaughterhouses in the Midwest. They stay silent – no OSHA around anywhere.

What this country and the corporate state of America did was destroy their farms, make a land grab and left them with nothing. Now as they come across our borders, let’s stop crying about this. We have a debt to pay.

Margaret Hittinger

Downey

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Published: March 27, 2014 - Volume 12 - Issue 50