Agroecology and the Struggle for Food Sovereignty ... - Yale University

case study: food sovereignty in the mixteca alta
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The lesson of this story is, I think, difficult for us in the United States. We need to
get over the assumption that what we consider the good life and what we see as
solutions for the problems that stand in the way of the good life are the ideal for
everyone – they may not be solutions even for us.
Maybe one of the problems of globalization is that information and power often
flow in only one direction. The sustainable, traditional principles of the Mixtec people
– regionally apt, communal, cooperative, and democratic – might be surviving the
onslaught of globalization, but perhaps we’d all benefit if they could be shared too.
The global “food sovereignty” movement is an exciting way that people around the
globe, North and South, are working to tune-up globalization. So I asked Jesús León,
“How can we work together, North and South, for food sovereignty?” For the power
to control methods of production, quantity and quality of food produced and
consumed, and access to local markets – i.e., food sovereignty – is important to landbased
cultures.
“Economically and politically what we need is to . . . equalize subsidies to agriculture
in the various countries of the hemisphere,” he began.“We need to work for price
floors, not guaranteed prices, on critical agricultural products, limits that reflect the
cost of production. And we need to give one another the right to protect and control
national markets. We need an agriculture with an international political awareness,
since these things are not on the agenda of the political leaders of our countries.”
He thought a moment, and then continued, “Maybe we’re a bit too hard on academics
when we say they concentrate on publishing for one another rather than on
solving real problems. They have a real role to play if they can spread respect for the
alternative agriculture and agricultural science practiced by the millennial indigenous
cultures of the hemisphere and a recognition of the function these cultures have played
in not just preserving, but helping to create, the biodiversity of the world of today.”
As we walked, we arrived at a green oasis among eroded hillsides awaiting restoration.
(CEDICAM projects have planted more than 1 million native trees in the area of
Tilantongo in the last five years.) This was Jesús’ milpa – really the work of Fermina,
Jesús’ wife, who does most of the work since he is so often gone on CEDICAM work.
Here in traditional milpa fashion, three ancient varieties of corn stretched over my
head, mixed underfoot with traditional squash, black beans, fava beans, and amaranth.
Peach trees bending under the weight of their sweet fruit bordered the lush
greenness, fed by handfuls of fertilizer produced by red worms. Honeybees buzzed
around hives filling with the nectar produced by the floral abundance. “All of the
needs of a campesino family on each hectare,” one of CEDICAM’s goals, made real in
front of our own eyes.
“Yes,” I thought, “as Jesús said, respect would go a long way in helping get this new
encounter of cultures right.”
We might even learn something about what the good life is.
yale school of forestry & environmental studies