Non-governmental organizations and honey producers in the southern Mexican states of Yucatán and Chiapas have filed a petition with the federal court for an injunction against the government’s authorization of commercial production of genetically modified (GM) soybeans on an area of some 253,000 hectares. This potential growing area is divided among seven Mexican states.

In addition, “because of the serious environmental, economic and health risks posed by transgenic crops, we are calling for these areas of the country to be declared GM-free zones, with a permanent ban on their cultivation in the region,” Albert Chan of the Xpujil Indigenous and Popular Council in the southern state of Campeche told Tierramérica.

In May, the Ministry of Agriculture granted authorization to the U.S. transnational Monsanto for the commercial planting of GM soybeans. The company had previously been authorized to grow transgenic cotton.

Environmentalists and scientists maintain that the GM soybean crops will threaten honey production. According to the Mexican Association of Honey Exporters, in Yucatán alone there are some 16,000 beekeepers who produce around 10,000 tons of honey annually.