A peasant experience of rescuing corn and other native seeds: defending a common good
08 junio 2009Catherine Marielle, Manuel López Alavez, Marion Poinssot and Lucio Díaz
Group for Environmental Studies (Grupo de Estudios Ambientales—GEA)
May 30th 2008
30 pags.
Abstract
The regional peasant organization known as the Sanzekan Tinemi (ST) Social Solidarity Association together with the Group for Environmental Studies (GEA) initiated a project in 2001 framed within a regional program for peasant management of natural resources and agro-food systems. ST and GEA have worked together since 1993 in local management of natural resources in four municipalities in the Central Mountain Region of the Mexican state of Guerrero. The purpose of the current pilot project, the Sustainable Food System (Sistema Alimentario Sustentable—SAS), is to strengthen a group of 80 peasant men and women from 15 communities who conduct agro-ecological experiments and motivate others in the region to join them. Based on processes of ecological plot planning, their milpas become experimental, demonstration plots for developing sustainable practices (organic fertilization, organic pest and disease control, selecting seeds from the field, soil and water conservation, etc.). A key strategic aspect in the transition to agroecology consists of the on-site rescue and conservation of native seeds of corn (maize), beans, squash and chilies, to mention some examples, as regional common goods. A collective seed bank has been established, facilitating the development of inventories of local varieties, experimentation and systematization of different methods of organic conservation of seeds, reflection on more appropriate strategies for rescuing, taking care of and improving seeds, and reflection on the importance of teocintles as a source of corn’s genetic variability. Monitoring studies are conducted to detect the presence of transgenic corn, and workshops are held to increase awareness regarding the new threats represented by transgenic corn with respect to biodiversity, peasant and indigenous autonomy and everyone’s health. These efforts are coordinated with numerous networks of groups that support agroecology and that have come to the defense of Mexico’s corn. These networks currently form a broad-based, diverse movement working toward dignified living conditions in rural areas and in cities, and toward the country’s food sovereignty.
