The Good Things Happening in Mexico, Part I: The Little Old Mayan Woman Who Beat Monsanto

 

Thanks be to God, titans like Monsanto are not invincible.  Here is the opening of the story of how one persistent lady and her friends overcame them:

Leydy Pech, an indigenous Mayan beekeeper, led a coalition that successfully halted Monsanto’s planting of genetically modified soybeans in southern Mexico. The Mexican Supreme Court ruled that the government violated the Mayans’ constitutional rights and suspended the planting of genetically modified soybeans. Because of the persistence of Pech and her coalition, in September 2017, Mexico’s Food and Agricultural Service revoked Monsanto’s permit to grow genetically modified soybeans in seven states. Now Pech has been awarded the 2020 Goldman Environmental Prize.

--https://gmwatch.org/en/news/latest-news/19617-indigenous-mayan-beekeeper-honoured-for-halting-monsanto-s-planting-of-gm-soy-in-mexico

It is important to note what enabled their success - a firm adherence to and love for their old traditions and a mechanism in the fundamental law of Mexico that allows for local autonomy:

The state of Campeche in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula features an ancient mixture of forests, beekeeping, local agriculture, and deep-seated Mayan culture. Mexico is the world’s sixth largest producer of honey, and 40% of the nation’s honey production originates from the Yucatán Peninsula. In Campeche, 25,000 families — especially within indigenous Mayan communities — depend on honey production for their livelihoods.

Beekeeping is also integral to Mayan culture and a key factor in the protection of Campeche’s forests. Recently, with the rise of industrial agriculture, the state lost nearly 94,000 acres of forest — the highest rate of deforestation in Mexico.

 . . .

In 2012, the Mexican government granted Monsanto permits to plant GM soybeans in seven Mexican states, including Campeche and the Yucatán, without consultation by local communities. It was soon apparent that the GM crops were contaminating local honey in Campeche, threatening the food supply, environment, and livelihoods of the Mayan communities.

Leydy Pech, 55, is a proud Mayan woman who makes her living as a beekeeper in a collective of Mayan women. She was born and raised in Hopelchén, where the practice of beekeeping goes back centuries for the Mayan community. Pech has focused her beekeeping practice on a rare native bee species, Melipona beecheii. She is also a promoter of sustainable development for rural Mayan communities as a member of Koolel-Kab/Muuchkambal, an organic farming and agroforestry cooperative composed solely of Mayan women.

Beekeepers fight back

In June 2012, in response to the planting of GM soybeans in the region, Pech brought beekeepers, NGOs, and environmentalists together in a coalition known as Sin Transgenicos (Without GMOs). That same month, Pech led the group in filing a lawsuit against the Mexican government to stop the planting of GM soybeans. Their case rested on the fact that neither the government nor Monsanto consulted indigenous communities before approving the permits — in violation of the Mexican Constitution and International Labor Organization’s Convention 169.

 . . .

In November 2015, in response to the coalition’s lawsuit, Mexico’s Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the government must consult indigenous communities before planting GM soybeans. The ruling effectively canceled Monsanto’s permits and prohibited the planting of GM soybeans in Campeche and Yucatán. And, in September 2017, thanks to Pech’s organizing, Mexico’s Food and Agricultural Service revoked Monsanto’s permit to grow genetically modified soybeans in seven states, including Campeche and Yucatán. This decision marks the first time that the Mexican government has taken official action to protect communities and the environment from GM crops.

 . . . An unassuming but powerful guardian of Mayan land and traditions, Pech experienced frequent discrimination and was widely underestimated: upon seeing her in person following her court victory, a lawyer for Monsanto remarked that he couldn’t believe that this little woman beat them.

--Ibid.

Would that the South still had as much tenacity to fight for her traditions, and the structural mechanisms to protect them, as Miss Leydy Pech and the Mayans of Mexico.

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Holy Ælfred the Great, King of England, South Patron, pray for us sinners at the Souð, unworthy though we are!

Anathema to the Union!