Seed Sovereignty Documents | The Non-GMO Tortilla Campaign













Centeotl, ‘ maize Lord’, per Codex Borgia




CALIFORNIA
BIOSAFETY ALLIANCE


A
social movement to heal cultural memory in the struggle to restore the
indigenous tortilla





Devon
G. Peña | Seattle, WA  | September 20,
2013


I think most of us with a ‘life in
corn’ – as farmers, plant breeders, or seed savers – understand that the culture
of corn is the key to appreciating why Z.
Mays conveys a sacred concept of an obligation to care and nurture seed
diversity and thus why for such native ethics genetic alterations of maize for
ultimately commercial purposes are unethical and contrary to the cultural,
ecological, and juridical orders of the community. Three decades of
involvement with indigenous producers of maíz de concho in Colorado’s San Luis Valley led me back to Grandmother Knowledge and so I came to
understand that corn embodies a life-giving and
ancient relationship between people, plants, and place.


Yet, the past thirty years have witnessed the development
of a distinct threat in our Valley with the arrival of the Roundup ready and Bt
transgenic corn crops, planted in the northern part of Costilla County.


This makes some of our decades of work seem more compelling and wise. We have an equally long pursuit, as acequieros, dedicated to the
conservation of a set of unique short-season high-altitude varieties of bioregional maize – a pearly-white “floury dent” used to produce adobe oven-roasted winter store preparations
called chicos del horno.


So it is with a sense of expectations that I ask you all to mark your calendars since  September 29th has been set as the annual
Non-GMO Corn Day Celebration and this year will also mark the launching of
a new Non-GMO Tortilla Campaign.


The
California Biosafety Alliance has issued a letter inviting people and
organizations of civil society to join in supporting the movement to protect
Mexico as a Center of Origin for maize domestication and biodiversity. The event
referred to here is to convene in San Francisco, but I invite my readers and
followers to participate in this day of observation for the protection and
cultivation of endangered heirloom maize lines and their wild relatives. Create
your own local days of “Observance of Maize Biocultural Diversity.”


In
the spirit of the message and tone of the Biosafety Alliance letter and a
salute to the declaration for observance of non-GMO corn: I would like to add
that we also recognize many heirloom maize varieties once grown in and
flourishing in indigenous territories south of the border are now only being
grown by displaced farmers spread across cities and towns north of the border
from California to Alaska as part of a post-NAFTA Mesoamerican Diaspora.


The
Oaxacan Green Dent growing in the Pea-Patch next to you may very well be the
last of a line from Zapotec milpas
that now lay fallow and abandoned in the wake of state and narco violence. In this manner, the survival of the Mesoamerican
Center of Origin may well depend on the politics of a geospatial reorientation
of the center north by a couple of thousands miles.


What
we do – north of the border – to nurture and protect the creativity of
displaced indigenous corn farmers in our midst may well determine the future of
maize biodiversity across all of Turtle Island.




LETTER FROM BIOSAFETY ALLIANCE






Dear Allies, Supporters and Friends,


The Biosafety Alliance ask Non-GMO
advocate individuals and organizations to support the Latino community by
participating and attending the “Non-GMO Corn Day Celebration” on September 29th
at 24th Street at Mission BART station in San Francisco from
11:00 AM -3:00 PM.











Non-GMO Corn
Day Celebration is to bring awareness about the importance to protect native
corn from biotech genetic contamination. 
We are in solidarity with the grassroots movement in Mexico:  to protect Mexico as the CENTER OF ORIGIN of
native corn therefor not allowing companies like Monsanto to plant GMO corn in
Mexico because it will inevitably contaminate native corn through cross
pollination.





Corn has
been planted by the indigenous people through the Americas for 10,000
years.  Corn is their staple food, good
for the body and spirit. It is also an intricate part of their cultural and
Identity. Corn is a gift to humanity not a patent for profit.  We must keep our seeds pure and untainted for
future generations. The event will also mark the start of a Latina/o campaign
demanding the following:


  1.  Latina/o elected officials and politicians
    must advocate for Non-GMO corn to be available in food markets serving
    communities of color.

  2. GMO Foods,
    and in particular GMO ingredients in corn tortillas, must be labeled.

  3.  Democracy in
    our food system: As consumers we have the right to know what is in the food we buy and feed
    to our families.







Over the next 6
months we intend to gather 1,000,000 (one million) signatures in support of GMO Tortilla labeling in California. This will lead to a massive mobilization in Sacramento. We need your
help! 


Come celebrate the food movement as we
enjoy Non-GMO food including organic purple tortillas, music, art, speakers,
and ceremony. There will be music, poetry and information. This is a family
event and everyone is welcomed. The event will also take place in Los Angeles,
Stockton, East Palo Alto and San Luis Obispo.  For more info contact: justicebeginswithseeds@gmail.com


Facebook event in San Francisco: Join us! 


If you would like to sponsor or be part
of the logistics for the San Francisco event please contact us!


Miguel
Robles


415
3681891


http://biosafetyalliance.org/


Find
us on Facebook:


https://www.facebook.com/biosafetyalliance?ref=ts&fref=ts 





The California
Biosafety Alliance is a cross sector, multilevel and inter-ethnic alliance of
individuals and organizations working together to engage in broader outreach
around genetically modified (GMO) food issues and to bring together strategic
coalitions of diverse stakeholders to advocate for a GMO free food supply as a
means of pushing for a shift from an industrial food model, to a model of local
resilience.GMOs are a symbol that represent the industrial food system and
a key point that needs to be addressed in order to address and shift the
industrial food model.


Our vision is
to get the multi-faceted number of issues with GMOs, from health, to social
justice, to environmental issues, to corporate consolidation, to enter the
framework of various groups who have not traditionally focused on the issue of
GMOs as a central theme and point that needs to be addressed to push for a
systemic shift in the current corporate food regime.




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