FOOD SOVEREIGNTY AND THE CULTURAL POLITICS OF TRANSGENIC CORN Alice Brooke ...

241 Pages·2015·4.58 MB·English

by  Alice Brooke Wilson

CONTESTING THE FUTURE OF THE CAMPO MEXICANO:
FOOD SOVEREIGNTY AND THE CULTURAL POLITICS OF TRANSGENIC CORN

Alice Brooke Wilson

A dissertation submitted to the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in
partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department
of Anthropology.

Chapel Hill
2015

Approved by:

Rudi Colloredo-Mansfeld

Arturo Escobar

Dorothy Holland

Charles Price

Wendy Wolford
©2015
Alice Brooke Wilson
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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ABSTRACT

ALICE BROOKE WILSON: Contesting the Future of the Campo Mexicano:
Food Sovereignty and the Cultural Politics of Transgenic Corn
(Under the direction of Dorothy Holland)

This dissertation analyzes the social-spatial knowledge practices that have emerged in the
controversy over genetically modified (GM) transgenic corn in Mexico. This controversy is
embedded within a broader struggle over the future of global food production and consumption,
as the idea of agrobiotechnology as a techno-fix to global climate change and hunger
increasingly takes over the popular imagination. The concept of food sovereignty, as developed
within the Vía Campesina social movement, has emerged as a powerful discursive alternative on
this terrain. Mexico is one of the most active sites of dispute over the future and meaning of
maize and small-scale farming in North America.
Through ethnographic and discursive engagement with the key social movement network
that has emerged "in defense of maize" in Mexico, this dissertation analyzes the practices that
have worked to generate autonomy and alternative geographies of territory and justice in the
struggle over transgenic maize between the years 2009 and 2014. The complexity of intertwined
cultural and biological processes that give rise to agrobiodiversity make studying the cultural
politics of maize and the rearticulation of agrarian progress particularly relevant in maize’s
"center of origin."
This project describes and analyzes three specific, concrete sets of world-making
practices taking place at different sites of struggle against transgenic corn in Mexico: testing,
mapping, and the international Permanent People’s Tribunal. These practices emerged in
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moments of crisis—of contamination, of defining the centers of origin of maize, and of state
impunity—within the larger discourse of crisis that frames rural Mexico as under "attack" by the
Mexican government, starting with the neoliberal reforms of the 1980s. Each site of struggle and
cultural politics has changed the terms of resistance through multiple experimentations,
specifically generating practices of autonomy and multiplicity.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The thread of this project started with the bonds of friendship and trust formed between the
Social Movements Working Group at UNC-CH and the ETC Group in North Carolina—many
thanks to Hope Shand, Silvia Ribeiro, and Verónica Villa at ETC Group, and Ramón Vera of
Ojarasca. They connected me with the world-makers who continually generate and regenerate
La Red en Defensa del Maíz/The Maize Defense Network, to whom this project is dedicated.
Many thanks go to Annette Desmarais. Thanks also to the IDIEZ in Zacatecas, especially John
Sullivan, Manuel de la Cruz, and León García Garagarza.
My deepest gratitude goes to all the people who have welcomed me into their lives during
these years. The abundance of generosity, curiosity, and optimism has been stunning. My
colleagues at the Ceccam, especially Iván Hernández Baltazar, Roberto Muciño Cervantes, and
Daniel Sandoval, and the ever-inspiring Ana de Ita, welcomed me with great warmth, opening
the archives and including me in everything. The Ceccam will forever be one of my favorite
places in the world. Luis Hernández Navarro—your intellectual and political support has been
invaluable, and your faith in this project has been sustaining.
In Mexico City, thanks to my friend of nearly 20 years Carina Islandia Guzmán Bullock, who
shared her home and family and opened the door to the night of Mexico City, welcoming me into
Machistán. Much love and gratitude goes to my friend and occasional research assistant Fabiola
Martínez, as well as Itzayana Gutiérrez, Artemisa Téllez, Teresa Chang, and Mónica Coria. José
Luis Hernández Azpeitia, my dear Pepe, thank you for welcoming me into your family and all
the yoga, coffees, and many dinners shared with René Martínez.
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I’m very grateful for my UNC-CH writing group, Joe Wiltberger and Holly Worthen, for the
incredibly valuable feedback and support. Thanks to everyone in the UNC Social Movements
Working Group for providing an intellectual home from my first day in Chapel Hill, and
especially Michal Osterweil—so many amazing meals and hilarious moments. Thanks also to the
others who have made Carrboro a home: Sammy Slade, everyone at the BOG, Vimala Rajendran
and Rush Greenslade, Vinci Daro, and Kim Calandra. Aniruddhan Vasudevan’s clever kindness
helped immensely in Austin.
I have deep gratitude to the many people who worked at Maverick Farms in Valle Crucis,
NC, over the past years, especially Sara Safransky, Leo Gaev, and Christof den Biggelaar.
Many thanks to my incredibly encouraging committee: Dorothy Holland, Arturo Escobar,
Charles Price, Rudi Colloredo-Mansfeld, and Wendy Wolford. Each of you approaches your
work with deep care and commitment to the possibilities of other worlds. Putting your
intellectual work into conversation with this project has been an inspiration. And Suphronia
Cheek made sure it all happened, and with such kindness.
My parents and their partners have all been wonderfully supportive—much love and
gratitude to each of you. My sister, Hillary, and her partner Worth Kimmel have been there at
every step—thank you for taking over all the farm chores and caring for my beloved cat Tuta,
may she rest in peace. Tom Philpott—you are part of everything. Thank you.
Additional thanks for research funding provided by: the Social Science Research Council’s
Dissertation Proposal Development Fellowship Program, the Tinker Summer Field Research
Grant, Foreign Language Area Studies Fellowship, UNC-Chapel Hill Off-Campus Research
Dissertation Fellowship, and the Inter-American Foundation Grassroots Development
Fellowship. Dissertation research UNC Project IRB #09-2191; Pre-dissertation UNC Project
IRB #08-0835. References follow the author-date system, Chicago Manual of Style, 16th edition.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF FIGURES .....................................................................................................................viii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ........................................................................................................ix

INTRODUCTION .........................................................................................................................1

Part I: LAYERS OF STRUGGLE

CHAPTER 1 SOCIAL MOVEMENT LANDSCAPES................................................................22

CHAPTER 2 MEXICO: CONSTRUCTING AN HISTORICAL NARRATIVE.........................61

CHAPTER 3 MAIZE POLITICS, ECONOMICS AND BIOLOGY............................................94

CHAPTER 4 ANTHROPOLOGY AND RURAL MEXICO.....................................................109

Part II: AUTONOMY PRACTICES

CHAPTER 5 TESTING: MILPA, CONTAMINATION AND AUTONOMY PRACTICES....129

CHAPTER 6 MAPPING: COUNTER-MAPPING THE CENTERS OF ORIGIN....................148

CHAPTER 7 TRIBUNAL: CARTOGRAPHY OF JUSTICE....................................................176

CHAPTER 8 CONCLUSIONS ..................................................................................................188

APPENDIX A .............................................................................................................................193

APPENDIX B .............................................................................................................................196

WORKS CITED..........................................................................................................................198

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LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1.1: Distribution of native maize in Mexico (CONABIO 2011)………………….……….8

Figure 2.1 Alter created at the Permanent People’s Tribunal hearing in Oaxaca……..…………27

Figure 2.2 Zapatista march ……………………………………………………..……………….45

Figure 2.3 Vía Campesina March………………………………………………………………. 48

Figure 2.4 Corn people…………………………………...…………………………………….. 50

Figure 2.5 Student marcher…………………………………………..…………………………..50

Figure 5.1 Nixtamalized maize……..…………………………………….…………………….140

Figure 6.1 Territory outside the centers of origin………………………………………………163

Figure 6.2 Close up of map…………………………………………………...……………….. 163

Figure 6.3 The Ceccam’s first map……………………………………..………………………167

Figure 7.1 TPP hearing …………………………………………….…………………………. 182

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

CECCAM Centro de Estudios para el Cambio en el Campo Mexicano

CENAMI Centro Nacional de Ayuda a las Misiones Indígenas/National Support
Center for Indigenous Missions

CONABIO Comisión Nacional para el Conocimiento y Uso de la
Biodiversidad/National Commission for Knowledge and Use of
Biodiversity

CONASUPO Compañía Nacional de Subsistencias Populares/National Company of
Popular Subsistence

CIMMYT Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maíz y Trigo/International
Maize and Wheat Improvement Center

CNC Confederación Nacional Campesina

EZLN Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional/Zapatista Army of National
Liberation

GATT General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade

LBOGM Ley de Bioseguridad de Organismos Genéticamente
Modificados/Biosafety Law for Genetically Modified Organisms

LVC La Vía Campesina

NAFTA North American Free Trade Association

PAN Partido Acción Nacional/National Action Party

PRD Partido de la Revolución Democrática/Party of the Democratic Revolution

PRI Partido Revolucionario Institucional/Institutional Revolutionary Party

PROCAMPO Programa de Apoyos Directos al Campo/Program of Direct Payments to
the Countryside

PROCEDE Program of Certification of Rights to Ejido Land

SAGARPA Secretaría de Agricultura, Ganadería, Desarrollo Rural, Pesca y
Alimentación/Secretariat of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development,
Fisheries and Food
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SEMARNAT Secretaría del Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales/Secretariat of the
Environment and Natural Resources

TPP Tribunal Permanente de los Pueblos/Permanent People’s Tribunal

UNAM Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México/National Autonomous
University of Mexico

UNORCA Unión Nacional de Organizaciones Regionales Campesinas
Autónomas/National Union of Autonomous Regional Peasant
Organizations

UNOSJO Unión de Organizaciones de la Sierra Juárez de Oaxaca

WTO World Trade Organization

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