Environmental for Food Justice

Leyenda de origen.  Source: Radio Luzmar Declaration includes traditions, agriculture, customs, ideas, flavors and colors TRANSGENIC PLANTINGS ARE UNRESOLVED THREAT Devon G. Peña | Seattle, WA | July 28, 2014 We are all familiar with the idea that many ethnic and indigenous communities self-identify as “corn cultures” in the Americas. The most familiar case is that of Mexico since ancient civilizations proclaimed themselves to have arisen from maize. Indeed, the Mayan creation stories include the poetic account of how first woman and man are molded from white and yellow corn plants. One eloquent proponent of the concept of Mexico as a corn culture is Roberto Rodriguez whose doctoral studies focused on Centeotzintli, the traditional environmental knowledge and ritual practices associated with maize as a sacred plant. Lauren Baker – in a fabulous new book, Corn Meets Maize – is another scholar who observes that in indigenous communities, the cultivated fields of maize constitute a ...

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 i...