National Day of Maize in Mexico: Protecting the Sacred Plant

Mexicans celebrated National Day of Maize on September 29, 2014, with demonstrations, marches, and expositions. Known as the Land of Maize, Mexico now imports one-third of this sacred icon and staple food, mostly from the US.

September 30, 2014 | Source: Upside Down World | by Adelita San Vincente Tello

For related articles and more information, please visit OCA’s Environment and Climate Resource Center page, Genetic Engineering page, Millions Against Monsanto page and our Health Issues page.

Mexicans celebrated National Day of Maize on September 29, 2014, with demonstrations, marches, and expositions. Known as the Land of Maize, Mexico now imports one-third of this sacred icon and staple food, mostly from
the US. A fierce battle is being waged over corn that is still grown in Mexico, with small farmers and seed sovereignty activists pitted against Monsanto and other GMO giants, the Mexican government, the US government, and the World Trade Organization.

Adelita San Vicente Tello is an agronomist with a master’s degree in rural development and a doctorate in agroecology. She is director of Seeds of Life (Semillas de Vida), a group promoting agro-biodiversity and protecting native corn. San Vicente is also a convener of the Mexico-wide food sovereignty coalition Without Corn, There Is No Country (Sin Maíz, No Hay País) and a member of the Union of Scientists Committed to Society (Unión de Científicos Comprometidos con la Sociedad).

Photo: Adelita San Vicente Tello speaking at local celebration of Mexico’s first National Holiday of Native and Creole Seeds. Photo courtesy of Adelita San Vicente Tello.

Here we have an opportunity, which is that most corn is still produced by campesinos/as [small farmers]. They still use native seeds, and they use rainwater for sowing – even though they do it in soil that is very degraded and thus produces little. We consider this small-holder production to be an opportunity, because genetic reserves are stored in the native seeds. Traditional knowledge lies within them. This is really where the alternative lies for the food production model, especially when faced with the problem of climate change.

I work with an organization called Seeds of Life, which has an office in Mexico City but works throughout the country in Veracruz, Puebla, Jalisco, and Morelos. One thing we do is support the farmers in preserving their seeds by creating corn reserves. We call them reserves so as not to call them “banks”, the capitalist term. As the campesinos/as say, the best way to preserve seeds is to plant them in the earth. We also share information on the risks of the dominant food system, specifically GMOs, in order to elevate health and ecological awareness among consumers.

Seed exchanges are done at the regional level. Sometimes there is money exchanged in transactions between campesinos/as, but usually it’s a free exchange of native seeds. They always have a blessing of the seeds, a ritual combining traditions from the Christian religion and the indigenous religion, the latter of which is based on agricultural cycles.

The greed of transnational GMO and biofuel corporations has led to a dispute over corn. They want to rob all our global communities of this sacred grain.

Since the 1990s, the Mexican government has been waging an agrocide, trying to kill the countryside and its campesinos/as. Mexico has suffered grave consequences from the import model. In the 20 years since the North American Free Trade Agreement [NAFTA, signed between Mexico, Canada, and the US in 1994] was passed, 20% of the population has become hungry, 70% has become underweight, and more than 6 million citizens have emigrated. We import 42% of the food we eat.

Then, on January 1, 2008, matters got worse when the government completely opened up trade relations with the US and Canada, dropping remaining tariffs on basic foodstuffs of corn, beans, milk, and sugar.

For these reasons, in 2007 we decided to create a campaign in Mexico called
Without Corn, There Is No Country. We’ve tried to weave together many different efforts into this network. We did this to draw the attention of the Mexican government to our food crisis, and to get them to understand the political importance of food. What we want is for the Mexican government to protect our native seeds, to give financial support to help their preservation, and to have the international institutions recognize this resource. Our motto is “Put Mexico in your Mouth.” We say: “Save the farms in order to save Mexico.”

We did so many things in this effort throughout 2007: we planted corn all over the city and sent out a call to others to sow corn seeds. We held a huge open-air market with farmers’ produce at the Zocalo, the central plaza in Mexico City. We held a large concert with young people, and organized a fast for food independence on the anniversaries of the beginning of independence and the revolution.