Seed sovereignty as decommodification: a perspective from subsistence peasant communities in Southern Mexico

ABSTRACT

How do subsistence communities conceptualize their seed sovereignty? What do peasants perceive to be the principal threats to their seed sovereignty and how do they respond to these threats?; and How do local seed sovereignty initiatives relate to the broader ideologies, goals, and strategies of the global seed sovereignty movement? Local conceptions of seeds as a commons are contributing to a multidimensional decommodification project of peasant agriculture and indigenous autonomy. I analyze one particular initiative targeting environmental deterioration and climate change, two of the most salient threats to these communities' seed sovereignty: efforts to halt widespread chemicalization of subsistence agriculture.

KEYWORDS:

• Seeds as a commons
• moral economy
• indigenous autonomy
• Monsanto
• agrochemicals
• climate change

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank DESMI’s staff and all the community members who made this research possible. This is an enhanced version of the manuscript presented during the 2020 Journal of Peasant Studies Writeshop-Workshop in Critical Agrarian Studies and Scholar-Activism. Special thanks to Ruth Hall, Andrea Sosa, Jun Borras, and other members of the Collective of Agrarian Scholar-Activists from the South (CASAS). I also wish to thank Frances Rodríguez, Daniel Jaffee, Hugo Perales, and Ann Greenberg for their ideas and support. My sincere thanks to the two reviewers for their meticulous work and insightful suggestions.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 Jxun, interview, Tenejapa, January, 2016.

2 Rank order of seed sales (in millions of USD) and percentage of the seed market share in 2018: the German Bayer Crop Science, which includes Monsanto (US$ 9,338 or 22.4%); the American Corteva, a fusion between the American corporations Dow and Dupont (US$ 8,008 or 19.2%); the Chinese ChemChina, which purchased the Swiss Syngenta (US$ 3,004 or 7.2%); and Vilmorin & Cie/Limagrain, a fusion between two French companies (US$ 1,835 or 4.4%). Total sales and market share of top 4 Seed Corporations: US$ 22,185 or 53.2% of market share. Rank in order of agrochemical sales and percentage of agrochemical market share in 2018: ChemChina (US$14,030 or 24.3%); Bayer Crop Science (US$10,617 or 12.0%); the German BASF (US$6,916 or 12.0%); and Corteva (US$6,445 or 11.1%). Total sales and market share of top 4 Agrochemical Corporations: US$38,008 or 65.8% of market share (ETC Group 2019).

3 The Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (WTO TRIPS Agreement) is an international legal agreement between all the member nations of the World Trade Organization. It establishes minimum standards for the regulation by national governments of different forms of intellectual property. It became effective on January 1, 1995. The Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) grants breeders intellectual property rights over novel plant varieties. Currently, 76 countries are state members of UPOV, and 20 more are in process of joining it (UPOV 2021). In 1997, Mexico ratified UPOV-78. In 2018, as part of negotiations of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, Mexico agreed to adhere to UPOV-91. Article 20.7 of USMCA (U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement) also requires Mexico to join UPOV-91.

4 In 2018, the global surface area of biotech crops was 191.7 million hectares, as compared to 1.7 million hectares in 1996, when GMOs were first placed on market. Of the 29 countries planting biotech crops, 24 are nations of the global South. The top five nations planting biotech crops are USA (39% of the global area of biotech crops), Brazil (27 %), Argentina (12%), Canada (7%), and India (6%) (ISAAA 2019).

5 Food regime analysis is concerned with explaining the strategic role of agriculture in construction and development of the global capitalist economy. This framework identifies historical periods of capital accumulation associated with particular configurations of geopolitical power and forms of agricultural production and consumption (see McMichael 2016; Friedmann 2016; Bernstein 2016; and Otero 2012 for discussion of the neoliberal agri-food system). Using this framework, Fitting (2011) refers to the ‘neoliberal corn regime’ as the link between the Mexican and U.S. maize sectors, in which Mexico – the center of origin and diversification of maize – exports cheap labor and high-value crops, and imports American GM corn, seeds, and food. For analysis of the history of maize and its interconnections with capitalist development, see Warman (2003) from a sociology perspective, and Blake (2015) from an anthropology perspective.

6 La Via Campesina (LVC 2021) defines food sovereignty as ‘the right of peoples to healthy and ecologically appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and their right to define their own food and agricultural systems.’

7 For an analysis of the key role of States and legislation in regulation of seeds, see Kloppenburg 2004. For contemporary case studies, see Müller (2020); Peschard and Randeria (2020b); Silva Garzón and Escobar (2020); Felicien et al. (2020); Lapegna and Peremuter (2020); Nizam and Yenal (2020); Peschard (2017); Wattnem (2016); Demeulenaere and Piersante (2020); Roy (2013); Leguizamón (2020); Otero and Lapegna (2016); Aistara (2018, 2012); and Bezner Kerr (2013).

8 From 2016 to 2020, Mexico imported an annual average of 13.7 million tons of GM yellow corn from the U.S. (USGC 2020).

9 In his book Corn and Capitalism, Warman (2003) explores the persistence of the milpa and subsistence agriculture despite the expansion of capitalism and increasing incorporation of peasants into the labor and food markets. See also Isakson (2009) for analysis in Guatemala.

10 DESMI, one of the oldest grassroots organizations in Chiapas, was founded in 1969 by Bishop Samuel Ruiz, a proponent of Liberation Theology. DESMI was founded as a lay civil society organization charged with building a solidarity economy among Tseltal, Tsotsil, and Ch’ol indigenous communities, and has played a crucial role in development of indigenous autonomy in the region. Currently, DESMI works with over 200 indigenous communities, the large majority of which are autonomous Zapatista communities in the Northern (Tulijá), Southern (Los Llanos), and Highlands regions of Chiapas.

11 El Colegio de la Frontera Sur, Universidad de Chapingo, and Centro de Estudios para el Cambio en el Campo Mexicano.

12 All communities in the study region depend principally on native seeds. The few commercial seeds that peasants use or experiment with are often recycled or creolized seeds (see footnote 9), which after two or three cultivation cycles peasants identify as native seeds.

13 Mariano, interview, San Cristobal de las Casas, October, 2015.

14 Hugo Perales, interview, San Cristobal de las Casas, February, 2016.

15 For analysis of environmental degradation and social contestation related to use of agrochemicals and GM seeds in Latin America, see Leguizamón (2020); and Lapegna (2016). For analysis of health and environmental implications of agrochemical use by peasants see Montoro et al. (2009); Omari (2014); Paredes (2010).

16 The milpa is a swidden agriculture and natural resource management system developed by Mesoamerican peoples approximately 2,000 years ago (Ford and Nigh 2009). The milpa traditionally consists of maize intercropped with other species – most commonly beans, squash, leafy greens (quelites), and chilies, although they may incorporate one or more of over a hundred crop species (Nigh and Diemont 2013; Wilkes 2004; Perales and Golicher 2014).

17 Marcelino, interview, Cancuc, February, 2016.

18 Sebastian, interview, San Cristóbal, February, 2016.

19 Marcelo, field notes, Cancuc, January 2016.

20 Jtin, interview, Tenejapa, January, 2016.

21 Rosa, interview, Tumbalá, February, 2016.

22 Ana, interview, Tumbalá, February, 2016.

23 Javier, field notes, San Andrés, October, 2015.

24 Marcela, interview, San Cristóbal, December, 2015.

25 Ruben, interview, Cancuc, February, 2016.

26 Maricela and Esmeralda, interview, Venustiano Carranza, February, 2016.

27 Jaime, interview, Venustiano Carranza, February, 2016.

28 Peschard and Randeria (2020a) discuss several principal threats to peasant seed systems and agrobiodiversity identified by seed activists around the world: seed laws and regulations, IPRs, GMOs, biopiracy, corporate concentration, and new technologies and corporate strategies.

29 E.g. Open Source Seed Initiative (OSSI) in the U.S.; Open Source Seed License in Germany; and, following the OSSI model, BioLeft in Argentina, Seed Savers Network in Kenya, Masipag in Philippines, among others (see Gossi 2021).

30 For analysis of the relationship among agrobiodiversity conservation, food sovereignty, indigenous autonomy, and armed conflict in the study region see Hernández, Perales, and Jaffee (2020).

31 Juana, interview, San Andres, February, 2016.

32 Newell (2009) refers to bio-hegemony as the ‘alignment of material, institutional and discursive power which sustains a coalition of forces which benefit from the prevailing model of agricultural development.’ GMOs, IPRs, seed laws, and discourses legitimating current power structures are key components of bio-hegemony (Gutierrez Escobar and Fitting 2016).

33 DESMI and CIDECI are some of the local grassroots organizations that, along with some members of the Diocese of San Cristobal de las Casas, have opposed agrochemicals since the 1980s (Hernández 2018; Salgado Ramírez 2020).

34 At the time of my research, DESMI worked with approximately 60 agroecology committees from the Caracoles (Zapatista organizational centers) Oventic and Roberto Barrios, although this may have changed following the most recent territorial reorganization of EZLN’s Good Government Councils in 2019. In addition to collaborating with Zapatista communities, DESMI also works with 25 non-Zapatista communities through its Guardians of Mother Earth and Seeds project, developed in 2015 in conjunction with the Diocese of San Cristobal’s Congress of the Pastoral Work of Mother Earth in Defense of the Territory and Natural Resources, held in 2014 (Diocesis 2014; Lerna Rodríguez 2015).

35 GMOs and glyphosate (Roundup), two of the most highly controversial agricultural technologies which are an essential part of the current agri-food system, were placed on market by Monsanto (in 1996 and 1974, respectively). This corporation has been a key defender of GMOs, IPRs, and agrochemicals worldwide, including through legal challenges to farmers’ and governments’ rights (Peschard and Randeria 2020b; Busscher et al. 2020; IMT 2021).

36 Ramona, interview, Teopisca, February, 2016.

37 Jtisiak, interview, Cancuc, January, 2016.

38 Antonia, field notes, Tumbala, November 7–10, 2016.

39 Recording from a ceremony in San Andrés, October, 2015.

40 Mariza, interview, Tenejapa, March, 2016.

41 See Brush (2005) for a definition of seeds as a universal commons.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Carol Hernández Rodríguez

Carol Hernandez Rodríguez is an associate researcher at the University Program of Bioethics, UNAM, Mexico. She is a sociologist whose research links natural and social sciences, focusing on relationships between agrobiodiversity, seed sovereignty movements, peasant knowledge and livelihoods, intellectual property rights, and climate change.