Baldemar Mendoza Jimenez

In the indigenous communities of Mexico there exists a traditional way of life. ‘You help me I’ll help you.’

Baldemar Mendoza Jimenez, an agricultural expert from Oaxaca, Mexico, stood in front of a large crowd in The Fireside room last Wednesday and told those in attendance that this way of life has been nearly suffocated by the North American Free Trade Agreement.

“The situation we find now in rural sections of Mexico, especially in
the region that I come from, we began seeing since the beginning,”
said Jimenez.

In the speech, Jimenez explained several consequences of the policy changes that have arisen since the beginning of the agreement, including the taking away of price guarantees, the promotion of the experimental planting of genetically modified corn seed, and the encouragement of farmers to depart from traditional farming methods and become dependent on pesticides.

According to the United States Department of Agriculture Web site,
NAFTA was established in 1994 to eliminate trade barriers between the US, Mexico, and Canada within 10 to 15 years.

When the prices for the pesticides rose, farmers could no longer pay for them and left their farms behind to look for work in the U.S. or one the bigger cities in Mexico. With the farmers gone, Mexico relies on the U.S. for the import of even the most staple of food items — including beans, rice, and corn.

“One of the big effects of migration is that our community values and our community structure is falling apart,’ Jimenez sad. “What is happening is that our collective sense of organizing ourselves… is getting weakened… we are losing are food sovereignty. ”

Jimenez is affiliated with the Union of Organizations of the Sierra
Juarez of Oaxaca, an organization that has set out to put an end to the harmful affects NAFTA has imposed by teaching farmers how to use traditional farming
methods to restore Mexico’s food independence.

“What is most important to us is to rescue are food sovereignty as it
is fundamental in ensuring are autonomy… are right to decide what we eat, how we organize, how we educate ourselves and protect our
territories,” Jimenez said.

(Photo Credit: Rebecca Martino)