DEFENSE OF MAIZE COMMUNITARIAN AND WORLDWIDE

The brothers and sisters of the communities that form the Consejo Indigena Popular of Oaxaca “Ricardo Flores Magon” (CIPO-RFM), would like to thank you for inviting us to share with you what we feel and think in the mountains and valleys, at the sea shore and mid-valleys of our country. We want to share with you the conclusions we have arrived at after many hours of discussion, trying to make sense of what is going wrong with cultivating the maize. We are conscious that you have got knowledge of most of what we are about to tell, but we would like you to listen if not to learn, to help each other gain a better understanding of what is going on in our communities.

Mexico is the point of origin and diversity of the maize.
At present there is around 300 varieties of Creole and wild maize in our country, between them the teocintle. For thousands of years the majority of them have been grown and developed by Mexican indigenous farmers and peasants. The tortilla and maize are an essential part of the Mexican diet and culture. Cultivation in Mexico of varieties of genetically modified maize involves the risk of cross contamination for the Creole species as well as their wild relatives.

In a way, protecting our maize becomes a matter of national security. It is possible that the contamination of the creoles and wild maize will make them disappear forever. It can also cause the “teocintle” which is considered in parts of Mexico as weed to become some sort of super weed. The genetically modified maize that our country imports from the USA is destined for human and animal consumption. Such an import represents a great risk to the diversity and culture of Mexico since there is no control over its destination. It is entirely possible for this product to be diverted to be sown in the fields, either by ignorance or in a clandestine way, releasing it to the environment with no control over the risks it implies.

The indigenous communities of Oaxaca are known for their efforts in preserving and developing the different cultural expressions inherit from our ancestors. For the last 513 years we have resisted from our communities the different cultural, political and economic trends imposed upon us. At present we are witnessing how big transnational corporations in their efforts to globalise capital try to confront and divide our people.
The new plagues

We used to know how the “chahuistle” arrived. But today modern calamities in crops bear the hallmarks of foundations, investigators, environmentalist or development ONG’s and more than anything world financial institutions. They go around the world robbing and lying, trying to convince people to use their technology and techniques to grow the crops, trying to convince us that our ways are obsolete, no longer valid. Making us forget about our traditional diet, healing treatments, in short, our lives. After this is being achieved they begin to sell us their junk food, their technology to over exploit the land, in a word their way to die and to kill the earth.
We do not oppose technology where it is used with respect and wisdom, but we oppose modern technology that’s imposed over us ignoring and disregarding the wisdom and knowledge of our peoples. We stand against the way technology is used because it destroys our creole varieties of maize. It damages the land, and washes away mountains. It creates unemployment in our communities. It is the cause of much migration, discrimination, it lowers our wages, it creates new diseases and what is worse…It destroys our ways of production and our coexistence during the different stages of working the land. We reject technology because it dehumanizes the relation between people and destroys the cultural and social make up of indigenous peasants.

Mexico is the maize’s cradle. Maize is the base of our diet and culture. Despite this, due to the lack of investment that farmers and land have suffered for the last few decades we found ourselves now importing maize. Subsequently our diet depends on the maize bought to other countries, principally the USA. To make matters worse the maize imported from the USA is of a very low quality, this on top of the introduction of genetically modified maize that is now contaminating the native species in Mexico.

Life, land and maize.

In government offices and universities, researchers and businessmen worry about producing more maize without considering the importance of how and why.
They say it is better to produce more with less work, they say technology helps. They are tricking us to sow what they call “improved seeds”, to use chemicals to kill the weed, to throw fertilizers on crops to help them grow and to irrigate with poisonous liquids to kill the plagues. If all this as we know harms maize and other plants, surely it will also harm the animals and people that consume this maize? As we are experiencing now, diseases are more difficult to treat and we get ill more often.
We think that there must be an alternative to this way of producing maize that will destroy all the varieties that through the times have accommodated to the different soils, heights and climates of Oaxaca. There must be an alternative to this way of destroying life instead of preserving it. It’s also sad to see how poverty is forcing us to consume genetically modified maize, when it becomes cheaper to buy it than to plant it.

To genetically modify native seed will cause:

a) The destruction of hundreds of varieties of maize that have adapted to the most varied climates and heights of Oaxaca.

b) A lowering in the nutritional qualities of the maize that we have consumed for generations.

c) Exposing the population to new forms of diseases as consequence of the consumption of these GM grains.

d) To replace the ways in which indigenous communities, always respectful of nature, have farmed the land, for new aggressive and destructive ways of farming.

e) To become dependent on technology for the production of a grain that has its origins in our lands and cultures

f) To become dependant for our food supply on the food industry controlled by big transnational corporations.

g) The displacement of indigenous populations to new concentration centres to facilitate this exploitation.
DEMANDS

Our demands are:

1. To stop immediately the imports and circulation in our national territory of GM maize and any types of GM seeds and/or materials such as: soy and cotton among others.
2. To provide the population of the different regions of Oaxaca with all the available facts and information related to this matter.
3. The implementation of an emergency plan which will be elaborated and operated with participation of the communities and regions affected. This plan should be under the scrutiny of interested civil organisations and must involve:
a) Identification of the communities and pieces of land that have suffered from this type of contamination.
b) Identification of the type of GM seeds that had been sown.
c) Eradication of all GM seeds sown until now and implementation of the necessary measures to prevent this kind problem in the future.

4. To determine the responsibility of national and foreign companies and the authorities involved in the production, import and commercialisation of GM maize. To began legal procedures that will punish them and set an example against this kind of irresponsible acts.

5. Respect for the Rights of Indigenous Peoples as reflected in the Agreement 169 of The International Work Organisation.

Tomorrow is now

Maize is not just food: it is also an occasion for festivities, exchange, coexistence and mutual help. It is our own life. We celebrate when we sow the land, when the plant’s growing the corn and also when it is time for harvest. Now we have to defend it in the same fashion. We can not forget that we are in this fight to recover our maize because we must keep nature happy when we use the land. Every contaminated furrow that we open is a lost furrow. It is life that won’t come back. It is part of the extermination to which we are being subdued by the “owners of the world”. We must not allow the fangs and claws of money to steal the future, mutilate our dreams and make a nightmare of the tomorrow that awaits our children.
Our parents and grandparents ate the maize, we have eaten the maize. Will our children and grandchildren get to know it?
We have to fight, to call for peaceful and creative rebellion now to make tomorrow possible.

KILLER SEEDS OUT OF OAXACA!!!
NO MORE CROPS OF DEATH!!!

For our people right’s to free association and reconstitution.
For the Consejo Indigena Popular de Oaxaca “Ricardo Flores Magon”- CIPO-RFM-
Committee’s for participating communities.

San Isidro Aloapam, Sta. María Yaviche, San Isidro Reforma, San Juan Juquila Vijanos, Sta. Lucía del Camino, La Loma Jaltepetongo, Sta. Ma. Yucuhiti San Cristóbal Amoltepec Nuyoo Centro, Plan de Zaragoza Nuyoo, Yucubey de Cuitlahuac, Guadalupe Chindua San Pedro Juchatengo, Cacalotepec, Puerto Escondido, Sta. Cruz Huatulco Zaragoza Yosonotú, Lagunilla Yosonotú, Yucunicuca Yosonotú, Morelos Yosonotú, Sta. Catarina Yosonotú, La Soledad Sola de Vega, Los Limones Sola de Vega, San Miguelito Tlaxiaco, Loma Bonita Yosonotú, Cajón de Piedra Tehuantepec, San Pedro Zaachila, Pueblo Nuevo, Oaxaca San Isidro Monjas, Xoxocotlán, San Martín Itunyoso.

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