Indigenous Mayans Win Stunning Repeal of Hated ‘Monsanto Law’

The success of the people of Guatemala in protecting their food sovereignty and halting “Monsanto Law” is an incredible and inspirational example of people when united as a whole, can gain the power to show the world they are not going to stand for corporations dictating what food we are allowed to eat.

In June 2015, there was a new law that was passed in Guatemala that would exclusively patent seeds just a handful of International companies such as that hated company Monsanto. This opposition brought together an enormous group of diverse people from all across the Central American nation.

Social movements, trade unions, farmers, women’s organizations and the indigenous people from the Mayan took to the street of Guatemala City outside the Congress and Constitutional Court to stand against the new Monsanto Law and to show their disdain for the roles that GMO seeds and their patent holders would now play in Guatemala.

On the date September 2, a huge group of the indigenous people of the Mayan culture, were able to block off several different streets on the doorstep of the Congress and insisted that they immediately overturn this new law. The peaceful protests with the help of several coinciding court injunctions were able to stop this new law from even taking effect and on September 4, 2015, after just ten short days, the Congress of Guatemala decided to repeal the law.

The Mayan people that make up around half of the Guatemalan populous, ownership of the simple corn seed and the freedom to be able to cultivate their own crops mean so much more than simple food freedom.

“Corn taught us Mayan people about community life and its diversity, because when one cultivates corn one realizes that there is a variety of crops such as herbs and medical plants depending on the corn plant as well. We see that in this coexistence the corn is not selfish, the corn shows us how to resist and how to relate with the surrounding world.” ~ Lolita Chávez, The Mayan People’s Council

Monsanto Continues the Attack on Food Sovereignty
The rural populations and a great many indigenous tribes in multiple countries have a multitude of traditions that place great concern to land cultivation that are extensively rooted in their ancestry. These different traditions are commonly centered around the essential staple foods such as corn, which helps to make up a very substantial part of the simplistic diet of the indigenous and rural people. Cultivation of all food is regarded heavily as a cultural custom and a basic human right. By attempting to replace all different heirloom seeds with protected (GM) seeds, this freedom is then lost to all.

Different markets that have been completely overrun with Monsanto GM seeds have suffered extensively to the point of the near extinction of natural seeds and has wrought a great imbalance between national corporations and local producers.

A few examples are Argentina and the United States have seen totals upwards of 90% of all corn and soybean are now exclusively genetically modified. In Guatemala, where about 70% of the populous relies heavily on different small-scale agricultural activities of their livelihoods, this specific type of threat to the different natural seeds would help to create horrific consequences.

The Unfortunate Criminalizing Small Farmers

Monsanto continually spends untold vast amounts of resources to sue different family farms for what they call patent infringement. In addition to these when placed near neighboring farms of locals and when GM seeds pollutant them, Monsanto quickly moves to start suing those farms as well.

According to information brought up from Food Democracy Now who are a grassroots community for sustainable food systems, Monsanto, who lead the world in chemicals and biotech, have filed 150 different lawsuits against Monsanto, and continue to settle an additional 700 out of court for undisclosed amounts of money.

In countries where the sale of Monsanto’s GM seeds is completely legal, farmers are having to face the exact same repercussions. If passed the Monsanto Law in Guatemala would have meant that the farmers would even be allowed to grow food from any natural seeds. They would be forced into using license patented seeds from transnational companies such as Monsanto, and then be required to pay all kinds of patent fees even if GM seeds somehow got mixed in the farmers natural crop as results of wind or pollination.

Typically it’s common practice for international companies to seek control and enter different territories that have an abundance of natural resources, and utilize their resources and power to convince local governments to “remove” any and all obstacles that would hinder their gains. The result of a free trade agreement that Guatemala had made with the United States, Monsanto Law was ratified back in 2005.

This new law was rushed through and approved without any counsel or involvement from anyone that would be most affected by it. Which consisted of indigenous people and small farmers who grow their own food such as beans and corn for their consumption. The law would then label all local farmers criminals. Which in turn would result in a large increase to food prices and would have gone further to increase the social conflict between transnational corporations and the indigenous Mayan people.

Clearly the Guatemalans and the Mayan people did not agree with a government policy that turned them into criminals and then played favorites to the transnational corporations. In all this frustration, the farmers and other groups that worked together against this policy peacefully fought to have this new Monsanto Law repealed, and they won! With this amazing success and victory for the global movement to help ban all GMO crops and be able to retain, and in other places reclaim, control over their food sovereignty.

Food is a given right for all living beings. No other entity has any right whatsoever to tell you that you cannot have healthy food, clean water, and a comfortable place to sleep. I believe strongly that these are automatic human rights.

Nim Sanik, Maya Kaqchikel from Chimaltenango couldn’t have said it better,

“The fight to preserve collective property of Mayan communities such as vegetable seeds, which historically have served as a source of development and survival for the Mayan civilization, is a way to confront the open doors that the neoliberal governments have widely opened in favor of national and transnational corporations that genetically modify and commercialize the feeding of mankind.”

 

Sources-themindunleashed.org