Help the Maya defend their maize from a new "Monsanto Law"

Support Maya peoples' "David and Goliath" struggle to defend their sacred maize from genetically-modified corn. Your donation will support Maya lawyers, community organizers, agronomists, and others working to defend Guatemala's food sovereignty and agrodiversity.

As anthropologist Liza Grandia quips in her new book Kernels of Resistance: Maize, Food Sovereignty, and Collective Power, "Guatemala doesn’t have a gene problem—it has a greed problem.”

Guatemala is one of two Indigenous-majority nations in the Americas. Whilst Guatemala exports fruit, vegetables, and coffee to US consumers, half its children go hungry each night. According to UNICEF, an astounding 58 percent of Maya children are malnourished. Guatemala tragically ranks fifth in the world for childhood stunting. (This Q'eqchi' Maya baby is among the tens of thousands who have died from malnutrition-related diseases.)

Paradoxically, Guatemala is a global center of genetic diversity of maize, beans, and many other foods domesticated by their ancestors. This agricultural bounty gave rise to great ancient civilizations. It has sustained contemporary Maya cultures through centuries of colonial rule and genocide. New corporate threats to Guatemalan agriculture would leave more children hungry and displace more families to migrate to the U.S.

Even if they could afford genetically modified (GM) seeds and expensive herbicides (which they can’t), for Maya people GM corn is anathema. According to Maya origin stories, the gods once created people from maize. In everyday conversations today, Maya people still refer to themselves as “people of maize” and describe their country as Iximulew (pronounced ee-SHEEM-oo-lay-oo), the land of maize. Maize cultivation is a sacred tradition that has held together communities over millennia

When shadowy forces tried to pass a law in secret to legalize GM corn in 2014, Maya peoples responded with mass mobilizations never before witnessed in Central America. Through street protests and savvy advocacy by civil society organizations, they have repeatedly rejected attempts by transnational corporations to compel Guatemala to legalize GM corn in 2014, 2015, and 2018.

Although still technically illegal in Guatemala, field-tests show that Roundup Ready corn pollen has already contaminated native maizes in Guatemala. Q’eqchi’ Maya farmers in the lowlands are reporting strange maizes that survive when sprayed by Roundup (glyphosate). As northern food movements know, Monsanto has successfully sued organic farmers in the US and Canada whose crops were involuntarily pollinated by nearby GM crops. As a Guatemala farmer once remarked to Dr. Grandia, “If they can do that to the gringos, imagine what will happen to us.”

Yet another Monsanto Law introduced to the Guatemalan Congress in 2023 would criminalize traditional seed saving practices with prison sentences of 1-4 years and $50,000 to $100,000 fines (notably to paid in dollars) for small farmers who unwittingly violate patent agreements if their maize cross pollinates with GM corn.

Help impoverished Guatemalans in this "David and Goliath” battle to defend their ancestral seeds from corporate greed. Say “no” to more glyphosate in the land of [hiero]glyphs!

All donations from this campaign will be divided evenly among the following three organizations. For donors that would like to pass a more substantial donation through a tax-deductible (501c3) allied organization, please see kernelsofresistance.org or write the organizer. Professor Liza Grandia can give Zoom talks to Rotary clubs, churches, and other volunteer organizations interested in developing long term relationships with these grassroots movements.

1. REDSAG (translated, National Network for the Defense of Food Sovereignty in Guatemala) is a umbrella network of 60 grassroots and mostly Indigenous organizations. The coalition sponsors seed fairs, youth workshops, radio programs, lively social media for Maya people, investigations of the seed and pesticide industry, and community mobilizations to lobby Congress and the courts.

2. Bufete para Pueblos Indígenas (the Maya Peoples’ Law Firm), established in 2017 by courageous and tireless Maya lawyers, is Guatemala’s main public-interest law firm that defends communities threatened by extractive industries (oil, mining, etc.), pesticides and other toxic contaminants, human rights violations, and multinational trade agreements. (See their Facebook feed for the faces of jubilant, vindicated defendants). They have also played a critical role in Guatemala’s recent democratization. Last but not least, they have crafted an exemplary proactive piece of counter-legislation to the Monsanto Law. This bill #1086 before the Guatemalan Congress would holistically protect Maya seeds, biodiversity, weaving designs, medicinal plants, and other collective knowledge—and a model for movements worldwide of how to protect Indigenous traditional wisdom from privatization and corporate patents. (Maya lawyers and elders making arguments before the Supreme Court in 2020).

3. ACDIP (translated, Association of Indigenous Peasant Communities for the Comprehensive Development of Petén) is a Q’eqchi’ Maya peasant federation which works to defend Guatemala’s most bountiful lowland maize territory from land grabbers. This organization is important because Q’eqchi’ Maya farmers produce almost all the maize sold to urban markets for tortillas. They also started the first agroecology high school in northern Guatemala to teach young farmers how to produce more sustainably. (See another GoFundMe campaign that raised funds for this boarding school).

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Any donation makes a difference!

Why not GMOs?

GM crops developed in laboratories are designed to grow well at northern latitudes with irrigation and fertilizer. Even if they were free, these corn varieties simply will not grow well in the tropics where maize crops are sustained naturally by rains. Food sovereignty for Maya peoples can, in turn, support small maize farmers around the world. Mesoamerican farmers have conserved drought-resistant maizes, maizes that grow well on steep hillsides, and even a special maize that can fix its own nitrogen!