© Phil Dahl-Bredine
A few months ago my
friend Pedro called me over to his computer to see a video. To my surprise I
saw Mixtec campesino farmers thanking a regional foundation and the “Fundacion
Monsanto” for gifts of vegetable seeds, dip irrigation systems and chickens. As
the video extolled the work of these foundations in assisting poor indigenous
farmers, it displayed signs from the Monsanto Foundation in the background and
at the end of the video simply the well known “Monsanto” logo. I have spent the last 11 years working with Pedro and an organization of Mixtec campesinos on sustainable agriculture projects, the promotion and protection of the vast native seed heritage of this center of origin of corn, and the revival and promotion of traditional Mixtec farming techniques such as the Milpa. I found the video surprising given the rather isolated character of the Mixteca Alta of Oaxaca, Mexico where we work. But in the busyness of more pressing work I passed over the disturbing character of the video until a neighbor in our small village announced one day that she had found a foundation willing to help villagers with vegetable growing and small animal production. Indeed, it was the foundation in the video.
“What would have
attracted the largest seed and agricultural chemical company of the world to
the isolated mountains of the Mixteca Alta and to our little village? And what
did they have in mind by being here?”, I wondered. I remembered the recent scandal
caused by the revelation that the Walmart Corporation, now with one of every
five of its international stores in Mexico, had bribed officials throughout the
country to get permits and environmental impact studies. Even more striking for
me were its techniques of bribing local community leaders to undercut community
opposition to new stores in environmentally, historically or commercially
sensitive sites.
A few months ago the
Mexican government approved planting of genetically modified corn varieties on
a pre-marketing basis on thousands of acres in the northern Mexican states of
Chihuahua and Sonora. Part of the process that led up to these approvals after
years of moratoria on GE corn in this center of origin of the world´s most
popular grain involved a scientific mapping of the areas in the country that
still possessed native corn varieties. In these areas planting of GE corn would
be “restricted”. Oddly enough, the
mapping claimed that two small areas of this state of Oaxaca no longer used
native corn. Friends from these communities expressed great surprise that the
studies inaccurately claimed they no longer planted native varieties.
Not known for its
philanthropic concerns, the Monsanto Corporation has reaped large profits from
collecting on crops contaminated by its modified genes and even by the
“illegal” introduction of its modified seeds across the Americas. The illegal
or “unintended” spread of its genes has become both a marketing and a patent
revenue strategy in places like Brazil and Paraguay. Could the open doors of
the Oaxacan communities Mexican government studies claim no longer use native
corn varieties be part of a contamination strategy? Recent discoveries of
ancient corn remains indicate that the state of Oaxaca is the center of
origin of corn. Hundreds of native corn varieties resistant to drought,
flooding, wind, insect pests and poor soils still flourish in the communities
of the Mixteca Alta. Is Monsanto looking for such rich biodiversity to modify
and patent , a practice for which the government of India is presently suing
the company?
And is the company
buying friends, a la Walmart, in the campesino communities of the Mixteca Alta
so that when the contamination and/or biopiracy of native varieties becomes a
scandal it can divide and undermine the opposition?
Here in the village we
asked ourselves what we could do in the face of much needed free handouts given
by a corporation whose expressed aim is nothing less than to control the
agricultural systems of the world for its corporate profit. We speeded up our
own non-profit efforts to create small, integrated, diverse, sustainable,
family farms to head off the Monsanto attraction in our small village. But we
can only do that on a very limited scale. And what is at stake is vast.
According to U.N.
special rapportuer, Oliver De Schutter, there are still 1.6 billion people on
the planet who live by being subsistence farmers producing, above all, the
majority of their own food needs. Here in Oaxaca most of our subsistence
farmers own most of their input needs to keep farming. They use animal
traction, make their own plows, access natural fertilizers from animal manure,
collectively own a richly biodiverse native seed heritage, and possess an
agricultural tradition and collective know-how that serves them well.
Enterprising international and national businesses such as Monsanto naturally
long to replace these independent tools and techniques owned by indigenous
farming communities with commodities that they can supply at a profit. Where possible
they would also like to create new “necessities” for this subsistent farmer
sector; new machines, new pest control products…new patented genetically
modified seeds that can only be planted once before having to be purchased once
again. In short, they would like to turn all of these collective needs into
commodities which farmers would need to buy to continue planting.
But here in the
Mixteca Alta and around the world 1.6 billion subsistence farmers succeed
because they practice a low-input farming which needs very little cash input to
yield food for the family. “Commodify” this subsistence sector and you will
unleash, among other drastic results, a wave of migration as we have never
before witnessed.
Doing this with
genetically modified seeds here in the center of origin of corn will, in
addition, threaten the future existence of corn for us all.
That´s why a few weeks
ago 300 campesino men and women from across Oaxaca met in the
beautiful ethno-botanical gardens
of Oaxaca city to strategize about promoting and defending the incredibly rich
biodiversity of native corn varieties in this state where more than 36 of the
original 56-60 land races of native corn are still planted along with hundreds
of varieties of each race, each adapted to the challenges of the growing
conditions of its specific region. With this incredible biodiversity and these
rich genetic resistances we hold the future of corn on the planet in our hands.
In addition to
developing plans to promote the planting and improvement of native seeds and to
strengthen the custom of planting in milpa in Oaxacan communities, these
300 farmers put together a defense plan with coordinating committees in the
various regions of the state. Educational “brigades” will bring information to
indigenous communities and coordinate the use of traditional governance
structures and appropriate formats to assist agrarian communities and cooperative
landholding ejidos to declare themselves GMO free territories and pueblos
independently of the federal processes that favor corporations such as
Monsanto.
Meanwhile, what do we
say to our neighboring communities about the Fundacion Monsanto? Perhaps, pragmatically,
“Accept the gift, but don’t for a minute trust the giver?”
