Sin Maíz no Hay Paíz | Most Mexican corn still produced by small indigenous farmers
Moderator’s Note: As we continue to
monitor and analyze developments in Mexico related to the Sin Maíz no Hay Paíz (Without Corn, There is no Nation) movement,
it seems appropriate to bring readers’ attention to a recent report that confirms
the continued principal role of smallholder farmers (i.e., peasants) as
producers of the corn directly consumed by Mexicans.
Reporting in Red en
Defensa del Maíz (Network in Defense of Maize) on June 26, 2015, Daniela
Barragan with SinEmbargo.mx, notes that smallholder,
mostly Indigenous farmers still constitute the majority of corn producers in
Mexico: 85 percent. This is a significant fact because it suggests that – despite
more than a decade of effort – the transnational biotechnology corporations
like Monsanto have failed to completely displace the Indigenous and other
traditional smallholder maize cultivators.
However, the report also warns that these small farmers continue
to face a condition of extreme precariousness as a result of the rules and
policies that large national and transnational corporations have managed to
impose through their influence over the neoliberal Mexican state’s federal agriculture,
trade, and food policies.
Barragan’s report reveals how the Mexican government manages its
agricultural sector services in a manner that creates disparate impacts based
on a model that privileges the larger mono-crop producers in the north over the
polyculture milpa farmers of the south, the majority of them Indigenous
smallholders or ejidetarios. In my view, this confirms a pattern that has
existed since the formation of the elite-driven modernist project in Mexico or,
if you will, since the Porfiriato (1876-1910): Dispossession by other means is
still forcible displacement.
This report provides information that must not be overlooked by
those of us concerned with the struggle to defend native corn in Mexico. The
threats posed by transgenic maize are facilitated through complex and corrupt bureaucratic
agencies and this is expressed in the marginalization, under neoliberal public
policies, of the very producers whose agroecological practices created and
continue to sustain maize agro-biodiversity.
In other words, the state of economic
exception that denies making investments in the protection, prosperity, and
productivity of smallholder Indigenous farming systems and communities is as
much of a threat to the future of maize diversity as the threat posed by
transgene contamination, and indeed the two work in tandem through the quagmire
of corruption and collusion (with corporate masters) that is the labyrinth of
Mexico’s neoliberal governmental regime.
A
final comment: One of the corporations that Barragan lists as among the three
to benefit the most from neoliberal policy is the so-called “King of Cereals”, Minsa. This
corporation “focuses on the manufacture of nixtamalized corn, dehydrated
nixtamalized corn and packaged tortilla flour; all of this, supposedly organic,
non-GMO and gluten-free.” The last phrase, with the qualifier, “supposedly”,
presents a significant caveat since currently there is no independent third
party system for verification of such claims. This illustrates the need for the
food autonomy movement to assert the demand for independent third party
verification of nonGMO corn masa, in all of the indigenous varieties, which are
subjected to the type of commercialization that is becoming increasingly evident
as a direct effect of neoliberalization of Mexican policy on national corn
production.
PLEASE NOTE:
This is the moderator’s translation of the Spanish language original located at:
Red
en Defensa del Maíz; published June 27, 2015.
In Mexico, 8 of 10
corn producers is a smallholder Indigenous farmer
MONOPOLIES FORCE THEM INTO MISERY
Daniela Barragan | Mexico City | June 28, 2015
Of the 30 million tons that Mexicans consumed annually from
maize, 85 percent comes from farmers who have seven hectares or less, and daily
face battles against the rules imposed by the large grain companies to
disadvantage them. In addition, governmental welfare and economic support
policies only serve to sustain these families in a condition of immiseration
and marginality, one in which they cannot invest in agricultural activities, according
to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).[1]
For peasant organizations and specialists in the agricultural
sector, the deliberate abandonment that the small producers are subjected to
comes from the implementation of neoliberal policy in Mexico and, specifically,
with the signing of the free trade agreement with North America (NAFTA) in
1994, which resulted in a focus on the promotion of the market dominated by
large companies and the neglect of the actual productive base in the
smallholder sector.
Since
then, and with new factors such as increased migration, the introduction of genetically
modified products, and global warming, the prospects facing small producers are
not the most favorable since they also face systemic neglect and insensitivity
from the governmental authorities.
The
importance of corn in Mexican society is fundamental, and it was within national
lands that Indigenous farmers gave rise to more than 60 distinct native
varieties of this grain. According to a study by the National Association of
Universities and Institutions of Higher Education (ANUIES) in Mexico there are
roughly 9 million hectares of corn currently sown and this results in the
production of around 23 million tons; to meet national demand, Mexico must
import up to 12 billion tons a year.
However, between
2013 and 2014, the price per ton of maize received by the producers fell by 30
per cent.
The cost of
the production of a ton of corn is approximately 2 thousand 800 pesos to 3 thousand
pesos; but distribution companies are looking to buy it at 2 thousand 500
pesos.
The Network
in Defense of Maize has repeatedly pointed out that the large companies and Mexican
Government have launched brutal attacks on domestic agriculture and this is
evidence that transnational corporate enterprises aim to destroy independent smallholder
production to make way for programs of intensification of the crop with
mechanization and agrochemical packages.
“Small
producers of maize in Mexico are facing a problem of lack of government
policies to support small and medium-sized production. Government policy has
focused on supporting large-scale production, mainly in areas of irrigation and
in the Northwest of the country, forgetting that most of the people who produce
maize do not correspond to these sectors, the majority are farming between 5
and 7 hectares, representing 85 percent of corn production units,” according to
the agronomist Víctor Suárez Carrera, Director of the National Association of
Companies for Commercialization of Rural Producers A.C. (ANEC).
Suárez
explains that under the optics of the federal Government, the farmers
representing this 85 percent are not competitive, when in practice they have
demonstrated high productive potential at lower costs and the ability to
produce more healthy food; this despite the absence of policies of recognition
and productive support: “today these farmers are living a situation of loss of
profitability, production costs have increased while prices have plummeted, and
the Government does not have even a single perspective for them.”
“We [the smallholder
producers] are not considered within the projects of the nation’s Presidents. They
abandoned us. And since then thousands of producers have abandoned farming activity
and many have chosen to abandon the country; they have abandoned their land or
sold it off. Unfortunately, things have not changed. The Government’s public
policy is not aimed at strengthening the productive processes of communities”,
said Pedro Torres Ochoa of the Democratic Peasant Front of Chihuahua, an
example of communities who have tried to organize themselves by adopting a
business model in order to sell their products. [Moderator’s note: They went ‘neoliberal’ as is required by Sagarpa
policy and established these commercialization companies to gain access to
governmental support and resources. I will discuss this issue further in a
forthcoming blog].
However,
the model did not work due to the enormous control large companies have over
the market, where they can buy products at low cost, while the peasant company
went bankrupt and without a profit margin: “These people decide price, quality,
volume, they decide everything and they buy what they want and in the way that
they want, often damaging the producers who are within communal organizations that
challenged this control”, he added.
“[The
producers] face the greed that exists over their territories, subject to the logic
of the market where large producers consider these small farmers as mere
material sources that must be ‘priced’ by the market; it is an overwhelming
logic, but even with all that, they have failed to extinguish them. In the United
States, there are more prisoners than farmers in the field. Here they are
owners, even if it is home-grown tomatoes that they have already eaten, it is
important to the level of dependency and poses a question that [the state and
corporations] do not like,” states Veronica Villa of the action group on
Erosion, Technology and concentration (ETC Group).
 |
Evidence suggests collapse of farm gate corn prices is affected by speculation in the commodity futures and derivatives markets. |
Those who win
In Mexico,
there are three national companies that have benefited the most from the ‘neoliberalization’
of corn. Their earnings are substantial and they have managed to establish an
international presence.
Gruma, a
company dedicated to the production, marketing, distribution and sale of
packaged tortillas, corn meal and flour of wheat, through Maseca, its
trademark, has 50 percent of the market of corn flour in Mexico and controls 74
percent of the tortilla market.
The owner
of Gruma is Roberto González Becerra, who is also owner of financial group
Banorte-Ixe, the third largest bank in Mexico, and that was purchased during
the administration of Carlos Salinas.
After his
death, the business was in the hands of his family, but the value of the fortune
that he left them in Maseca amounts to 1.9 billion dollars, according to Forbes
magazine.
In 2014,
Gruma attained sales of 3.4 billion dollars, of which 70 percent came from
operations outside of Mexico.
There is
also the “King of Cereals”, Minsa. This company, with a near global presence,
produces corn flour for tortillas, snacks, cereal, pasta and bread. It has also
entered the market for golden, white, yellow, blue, purple and red corn. It
focuses on the manufacture of nixtamalized corn, dehydrated nixtamalized corn
and packaged tortilla flour; all of this, supposedly organic, non-GMO and
gluten-free.
It has a
market capitalization of 2.897 billion pesos in the first quarter of 2015, and had
net income of 1.322 billion pesos.
Finally,
there is Cargill, a company that started operations in Mexico in 1965. This
transnational corporation dedicates itself to the production of food, and
agricultural items and services in 67 countries. This company buys, processes
and distributes grain and other goods to manufacturers of food for animal
nutrition.
In 2014, it
generated 134.9 billion dollars in sales, one billion more than in 2013.
Both
Cargill and Minsa, have been two of the companies to benefit the most from the
policies of the Secretariat of Agriculture, Livestock, and Rural Development
(Sagarpa), through the general coordination of marketing.
“All this
stems from the decision the Government took 30 years ago, to deliver the
Mexican food system to transnational agri-food corporations […] It is
deliberate neglect, under the argument that we don’t produce our own food
because we can import it cheaper from United States and Canada”, according to
Suárez Carrera.
Sagarpa has
11 support programs, of which five are supporting agriculture.
The Agency
for Services to the Commercialization and Development of Agricultural Markets (Agencia de Servicios a la Comercialización y
Desarrollo de Mercados Agropecuarios, Aserca) is responsible for undertaking
applied projects involving producers in farming, fisheries, aquaculture and
other rural sectors, to prevent and manage the risks that may arise.
Another
program is ProAgro, formerly ProCampo, which seeks to contribute to the
production and productivity of the rural economic units, through incentives for
investment in physical, human and technological inputs [sic], as well as post-harvest
management, and more efficient use of energy and natural resources.
These
programs are directed at communal landowners for the purchase of tractors or farm
implements, the construction of greenhouses, drip irrigation, subsidies for
diesel, or discount vouchers.
Aserca
channels between 8-9 billion pesos per year, but according to the Anec Director,
this is distributed with great disparity: “while they can support Sinaloa
producers with 200 pesos per ton of corn and produce 1000 tons on a 100 acres, they
will receive up to 800 thousand pesos or more. In contrast, a [small] producer
in Tlaxcala, Puebla, Chiapas, Veracruz or Campeche, only receives 1,500 pesos
per hectare through Procampo or ProAgro Productive. That causes the gap between
large commercial producers and the rest to grow bigger while the abandonment of
[ejido lands] deepens.”
“Peasants
and indigenous people always are in the discourse of the authorities and
politicians. They always say that they do much to help us but they are not
really doing anything. What they do is to sell us within their project on
international trade [...] Most of the people in the countryside, who have not
migrated, continue to suffer the problems caused by public policy that does not
help. People continue to produce their own food, but the problems of the market
and the high costs of production continue,” concluded Torres Ochoa.
“It is
difficult to separate the economic theme from the cultural. People have built
their life around corn, which has been the material foundation of an entire
civilization. It is not that the people in the rural communities are not very
interested in preserving maize; it is not a matter of decision, but of a whole
system of production that is suitable to the climate, to the cycles of water
and moisture; it is a system that developed over hundreds and thousands of
years. To remove people from their land and corn production, is to remove them
from the main focus of their way of life,” said Verónica Villa of ETC Group.
Moderator’s Bibliography of Sources
Cited
Greenpeace
2003. Maize Under Threat: GE Maize
Contamination in Mexico. Hands Off Our Maize Briefing Package. Web. Accessed June 28, 2015. URL: http://www.greenpeace.org/international/PageFiles/24249/maizeunderthreat.pdf.
Mejia, M.,
and D.S. Peel. “White and Yellow Corn Production in Mexico: Food versus Feed,”
Analysis and Comments, Letter No. 25, Livestock Marketing Information Center,
Denver, CO, June 2009. Web. Accessed June 28, 2015. URL:
Mexican
Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, and Rural Development (SAGARPA) 1997. Situación actual y perspectiva de la
producción del maíz en México 1990-1997. [Current situation and future
prospects for maize production in Mexico 1990-2004]. Web. Accessed June 28,
2015. URL: http://www.campomexicano.gob.mx/portal_siap/Integracion/EstadisticaDerivada/ComercioExterior/Estudios/Perspectivas/maiz90-04.pdf.
[1] Moderator’s note: The apparent
original source of this statistic is the semi-annual Mexican Ministry of
Agriculture, Livestock, and Rural Development (SAGARPA) report on the status of
maize production; the 1990-1997 report is the one cited in Greenpeace 2003: 13;
nt 41 (15) and adopted by Barragan. This statistic is accurate today as
confirmed by the most recent version of this official report, which covers the
period through 2004, and is the link provided in the bibliography above. The
2009 Sagarpa report, according to Mejia and Peel 2009, cites these figures: “Traditional
farmers generally grow corn in very small areas, usually smaller than 5 ha
(12.35 ac), with many that are less than 1 ha (2.47 ac). According to SAGARPA
(2009), there are about 2 million corn producers in Mexico, 85 percent of those
are farmers who own areas under 5 ha (about 12 ac).
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