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TechnoratiMEXICO CITY - Tens of thousands of farmers clogged the streets of the capital on Thursday to protest the end of tariffs on corn from the United States, warning that the elimination of trade barriers could drive them out of business and lead more Mexicans to migrate north.
The farmers brought a herd of cattle and more than 50 tractors to make their point, jamming the historic center and blocking the central artery, Paseo de la Reforma. One rowdy group burned a tractor.
Stretching for more than four miles, the march was a sea of tanned faces, cowboy hats, flags and calloused hands gripping banners with slogans like "Without farms there is no country." The police said at least 50,000 people joined the protest; organizers put the number at 100,000.
"We cannot compete against this monster, the United States," said one farmer, Enrique Barrera Pérez, who is 44 and works about five acres in Yucatán. "It's not worth the trouble to plant. We don't have the subsidies. We don't have the machinery."
One the nation's largest labor coalitions, the National Union of Workers, joined dozens of farmers' organizations like the National Campesino Confederation to finance the march. The organizers bused people in from as far away as Chihuahua in the north and Yucatán on the Gulf Coast.
On Jan. 1, the last tariffs on corn, beans, sugar and milk were lifted under the North American Free Trade Agreement, completing a 14-year transition to an open market between Mexico, the United States and Canada.
Since then, Mexican leaders of farm coalitions and other unionists have been calling for the government to renegotiate the treaty, putting them at odds with President Felipe Calderón, a staunch free-trade advocate.
The farmers worry that a surge of inexpensive corn could doom millions of peasants who farm plots of less than 12 acres. They also complain that the government has done almost nothing to prepare farmers for the open competition.
Much of the $1.4 billion in annual aid for farmers, they say, has gone to large agricultural businesses in the northern states rather than to small farms.
"We are mostly angry with the Mexican government," said Victor Suárez, the leader of ANEC, a farmers' coalition. "They have left the small producers to fend for themselves."
Opposition politicians have also seized on corn- along with an unpopular proposal to allow foreign investment in the state oil monopoly - to whip up sentiment against the administration.
Mr. Calderón has fought back. In a speech on Jan. 7, he declared that the free-trade agreement had brought Mexicans lower prices for goods while increasing exports fourfold, even when oil is excluded.
"As with all agreements of this nature, the treaty presents challenges and opportunities, but in general it has been beneficial to Mexicans," he said.
Yet the renewed debate seems to have touched a nerve in Mexico, where corn was first domesticated 5,000 years ago and the culture revolves around its consumption. Underlying the political discourse is a widespread sentiment that poor Mexicans have benefited little from free-trade policies, while giant businesses have reaped profits.
In practice, however, nothing changed on Jan. 1. Mexico had been gradually dropping its tariffs on corn since 1994, when they stood at more than 200 percent, and most of the corn imports in recent years had entered without tariffs under import quotas. What is more, the corn from the United States is yellow corn, used to feed livestock, rather than the white corn Mexican farmers produce for tortillas.
Some opponents of the treaty, however, say a spike in demand for American corn to produce ethanol has protected Mexico's farmers so far. Over the long haul, these critics say, small farmers in Mexico cannot face off with the Americans' heavily subsidized and mechanized farms.
"How are you going to compete with the enormous subsidized farms in the United States and Canada?" said Francisco Hernández Juárez, the president of the National Union of Workers. "It's totally unequal."
Agricultural officials here agree that the peasant farmers cannot hope to stay in the game. They say four-fifths of the nation's 2.6 million small farms have plots so little that they produce only enough to live on and never market their goods.
"Our small producers are not affected by the free trade agreement," said Marco Sifuentes, a spokesman for the agriculture department. "They don't participate in the market."
Francisco López Tostado, an assistant secretary of agriculture, said the answer lay in peasant farmers' forming large competitive agricultural cooperatives, a policy the administration has pursued.
Several marchers who farm less than five acres said they no longer planted corn or beans except to feed their own families. Even with corn prices high, they said, the high costs of fuel and fertilizer had made it unprofitable to market their corn.
Others with larger farms said they could still make a living, but they feared that imports from the United States would eventually drive the prices down to a point where they could not compete.
Francisco Javier RÃÂos, 66, a farmer from Bahia de Banderas, in Nayarit State, said he planted 15 acres with white corn each year. Depending on prices and weather, he can make between $3,000 and $4,000 of profit. He worries, however, that imports from the United States will cut his thin profit margin.
"The free market should exist, but it should be more level," he said. "To compete against them is unfair to us because we don't get the same subsidies. Our costs are 100 percent ours."
© 2008 The New York Times
20 Comments so far
Show AllWebwalk, Rebel Farmer, cheencheen, I'm happy to provide the info. One other thing that I did not mention is this. Take a metal can (large tomato sauce can) and punch five or six holes in the bottom. Place the can next to each plant one or two inches into the ground. Fill it with water as needed by the plant. It will slowly self water and save water over general watering. Also, once a month fertilize with an organic fertilizer mixed with water. Again place the fertilizer mixture in the can and it will slowly self fertilize. If you can catch water in a rain barrel it works good. Remember though composite asphalt shingle roofs can generate toxic water, so don't use that. Start planting your tomatos indoors now....
I would think that NAFTA should address the subsidies issue. It is not "free" trade when there are subsidies. This is the nature of large complex laws and treaties. Most people do not really know the provisions, but they express strong opinions anyway.
I would hope that cellulose ethanol will help U.S. farmers have another revenue source from the corn stalks as well as the corn. In that way, we may be able to roll back some of the corn subsidies for American farmers.
The Mexican farmers could form cooperatives, but until they can raise the large capital required to compete, they will be at a disadvantage. This is the nature of change. If the government brings about the change through treaties, I think it is their responsibility to make sure that it does not cause harm its citizens.
Doom n Gloom
What a gift of information you've shared. I want to come work in your garden and learn. I don't have any land of my own, but I bet I can find a community garden somewhere nearby. Or try to start one.
ditto what webwalk said.
Here in the Willamette Valley in Oregon, hazel nuts grow like weeds. I don't think the acorns would do as well.
And for those who do not have a yard or garden area, start working with neighbors that do. Volunteer your time, labor, and knowledge. We are all in this together and we need each other for the hard times to come.
Doom n Gloom,
Thanks so much for the excellent post.
Everyone should be gardening, building soil, practicing to live with the land. Doom n Gloom's advice to start now is good advice.
There's real big hard times coming folks. Pretty soon those of us who are still alive will be wondering why we ever worried and argued so much about who might be President...
The milpa garden is an ancient innovation It began with ancient farmers attempting to develop better teosinte plants. Maize was the result. Maize is potentially man's first and perhaps his greatest feat of genetic engineering. To people accustomed to thinking of maize as yellow varieties, the varieties of Mexican maize is startling, red, blue, yellow, orange, black, pink, purple, and multicolored. The jumble of colors in Mesoamerican maize reflects the region's jumble of cultures and eco zones. Maize is singularly responsible for the rise of great Central and South American civilizations. Advanced civilizations and cities larger than Paris France were evidenced. Indian farmers grow maize in something called a milpa. The term means maize field, but refers to something considerably more complex. A milpa is a field or garden in which farmers plant numerous crops at once including maize, squash, beans and tomatoes. Maize and beans are planted together along with squash. Cherokee maize is called blue corn. It is an old variety of dent corn with tall ( 10 ft.) thin stalks. Ceremonially, a small mound is made and seven seeds are planted. I plant four seeds in the center of the mound and this seems to work well. The mound should be about the size of a large plate and three or four inches tall. The mounds should be planted about three feet apart and the distance between the rows eighteen inches. Maize is planted after the first quarter when the moon is rising. In Missouri that would be about April 8th as the moon rises.. Vining plants like beans and squash are planted later. I usually wait until about May 10th before I plant the beans and squash. I plant an old Cherokee pole bean. The beans are planted at the outer edges of each mound of maize and use the maize stalks to climb. I normally plant two beans, on on each side of the mound. This combination allows the maize and bean to resist wind storms and remain upright. The beans and maize are complementary. Milpa crops are nutritionally and environmentally complementary. Maize lacks the amino acids lysine and tryptophan, which the body needs to make proteins and niacin; diets with too much maize can lead to protein deficiency and pellagra, a disease caused by lack of niacin. Beans have both lysine and tryptophan, but not the amino acids cysteine and methionine, which are provided by maize. As a result, beans and maize make a nutritionally complete meal. In addition, the beans' nitrogen-fixing roots provide nutrients needed by maize. Squash provide an array of vitamins. The squash are planted between the maize rows. I use an old Seminole squash that originated in Florida. It can withstand the hot summers we have in Missouri and is very hardy in our soils. The squash also serves another function. It's leaves have tiny needle like hairs on them.. These needle like hairs repel animals like rabbits and rodents because the needles are unpleasant to their feet. I plant the squash in a mound like the corn mound with a seed in each of the four directions. The tomatoes I grow are called Cherokee Purple. They are not actually purple but reddish purple. They too are a very old variety. The tomato plant is very hardy with strong branching. The tomato's are sweet, meaty and tasty. Finally I plant tobacco rustica. It is a very old Cherokee tobacco used to make offerings. It is brutally strong. I normally use it in a mixture with herbs called kinnik kinnik. Kinnik kinnik is a mixture of five herbs and used primarily in ceremonial smoking. A little dash of rustica adds to the meaning of the experience. I have an old hand crank corn grinder. They can still be found at various auctions. Mine is an adjustable grinder. Once the corn stalks are brown I cut them down and place them upright around a tree teepee style. At the first of the new year I pick the hardened corn from the corn stalks, shell the corn, and grind the corn into cornflower or corn meal. Grind only what is needed since ground corn will not keep very long. Since this is blue corn (white with blue kernels) it is known as blue corn flower. Blue corn flower is carried in some stores. Blue corn flower is used for various things including blue corn pancakes, corn and bean cakes, cornbread, and a host of other dishes. It is an Indian staple. Roughly ground corn meal is also used for Cherokee ceremonial purposes along with the tobacco. I grind the tobacco in an old hand cranked tobacco grinder. These are becoming more scarce but can still be found at farm sales. The tobacco Rustica is cut and hung upside down from a barn or garage ceiling joists until it has dried. Then it is shredded. The seeds are very tiny and one seed pod holds hundreds of little seeds. The beans (green beans) are small, perhaps three to four inches long. They have strings on both sides. As you might expect the beans and corn are a little tougher than the modern engineered varieties. With a little experimentation and proper cooking they are good. It is dent corn and dent corn is normally feeder corn for farm animals today. Again, if picked at the right time and roasted or boiled it is good and very healthy. Also, home grown foods do not lack selenium which is often removed with the use of non organic fertilizers.
I till sand and organic material into the garden in the fall and let it sit over the winter. In the spring I'll add kelp or fishbone meal or turkey droppings as fertilizer and till into the soil about two weeks before planting. I will fertilize after one month with a mixture of ground kelp and water. Turkey droppings and water can also be used but you need the constitution of a farmer to deal with it. I prefer the kelp. Each of these plants are Cheorkee Heirloom varieties. Some can be found at commercial heirloom providers such as the seedsaversexchange, www.seedsavers.org
The beauty of the milpa garden is that it is complementary and self sustaining. During the harvest season simply save the seeds for next year. It can be done very simply by selecting the best seeds from the best plants and placing them on an eastern or southern facing window sill, and allow them to dry throughout the winter.
I normally plant my tomato seeds indoors in early February. By mid-April they are large enough to place outdoors. I normally place them under a clear jar until sometime in May when they outgrow the jar. Then they are on their own. I water under the jar as needed, once or twice a week.
Any non-hybred corn, beans, or squash can be planted. Seed saving is very important because in a time of need they will be in very short supply on the open market.
It's also good to compost your organic waste such as grass, leaves, and vegetable food waste. I use a large garbage can with a lid on top. I cut a hole in the bottom eighteen inches wide and one foot in height. I spread the compost on my garden and till it in the soil in the fall.
For those just beginning to garden it's important that you begin this Summer. Although you will get a yield from your garden the first year, it takes about three years to create a good rich organic soil with minimal weed occurance. I normally spread straw on my garden once the corn is about one foot tall. I leave the mounds exposed until all the plants begin to grow well. This both suppresses weeds and helps to hold moisture.
I also like to place a stone, usually but not necessarily a flat stone next to each mound or tomato plant. I use stones about eight or ten inches square. They help to keep the soil moist near the plant.
If possible place a bird bath in or adjacent to your garden. I also place a bird feeder near my garden. This helps attract birds that feed on unwanted insects. If you place a bananna peel at the base of your tomato plants it will help to keep aphids off of them. Also use ladybugs whenever possible.
A good book is "Flour Power" a guide to modern home grain milling by Marleeta Basey.
Another good book is "Whole Grain Breads by Machine and Hand" by Beatrice Ojakangas. Both should be readily available.
Maintain a community of growers who grow heirloom varieties so they you can trade for variety and also survive a failed crop by sharing.
It's nice to have power tools but be sure to have enough shovels, pitchforks, potato forks,
hoes, and rakes. Buy them from local sales and farm sales. Also look for old hand corn shellers and corn grinders. Many of them still work well. If you buy one that does not they do have antique value and can normally be sold at a profit for décor. And don't forget the little things like storing tomato stakes and jars for early planting.
Finally learn where there are edible plants in your neighborhood. Remember not to pick them all but to leave some for reseeding.
Certain acorns are edible. If anyone is interested I will post that as well.
Good luck with your gardens.
"What this country needs is a good old-fashion revolution, however the prospects of that are slim because corporate america I think has succesfully castrated most of the male population in this country. They have forgotten what sacrificing is all about."
It's not just males, it's the entire American population
younger than a certain age who have not experienced or
learned from others societal deprivation (individual
deprivation, yes, but societal deprivation, no.) Maybe
a real depression will bring that back.
"Mr. Calderón has fought back. In a speech on Jan. 7, he declared that the free-trade agreement had brought Mexicans lower prices for goods while increasing exports fourfold, even when oil is excluded."
Interesting that Mr. Calderon did not see fit to mention what impact the free-trade agreement had on median income in Mexico. I wonder why?
Hi Rebel Farmer, Subcomandante Marcos was, and may still be, the leader of EZLN. This is a movement in Chiapas, Mexico which first caught the world's attention by leading an armed take over of several cities in Chiapas on January 1, 1994, the day that NAFTA went into effect. This was done in order to call attention to NAFTA's onerous provisions. You can find out a lot about him if you go to ZNet.org.
Calderon stole the election with the help of BushCo. At least the Mexican people rioted for days afterward. In America when elections are stolen, nothing happens. The People of the Corn have a lot more cajones than us stupid gringos. Unfortunately, the corporations and elites have all the big guns.
Who is Subcommandante Marcos?
ah, mexico. land of suppression and oppression. a country where people stand up and protest, unafraid of the consequences. busing protesters in from neighboring states (take that as a cue, america, or a clue). the passion. the machisimo, the common sense.
of course mexico doesn't have the subsidies, or the machinery. or in most places, the water. it's really not a question of inexpensive u.s. corn flooding the market. it's the question of gm corn poisoning the very core of mexico. already found in remote indian villages, way back in the mountains, for several years now. wonder how it got there? so 80% of the small farms produce only enough to live on? no. with gm food, these small farms can no longer hold back the kernels for next year's crop. in other words, the rich get rich, the poorer get, well, you know.
rtdrury, i'm not sure i've met middle class mexico. in all my years there.
Switch grass can produce three times the amount of ethanol per acre than corn but all this administration can do is to keep subsidizing the Corporate farmers while they stick it to us through ever increasing food and fuel prices.
What this country needs is a good old-fashion revolution, however the prospects of that are slim because corporate america I think has succesfully castrated most of the male population in this country. They have forgotten what sacrificing is all about.
Ethanol simply cannot support the scale of energy consumption at which the united states sees fit to consume. Corn, being the weakest of all biofuels, isn't fit for the energy expansion of the free market. It is poor decision to suggest the biofuel economy as a motivation for improving our deficient environment.
Mexico cannot stop the expansion of a free market from driving down the cost to purchase a commodity, such as corn. The free market is not going to allow for quality to outdo quantity in production, and consumers cannot demand enough to change this fact. Take, for instance, Friedman's example of the Steel Industry, which suggests that given the market opens up cheaper costs for steel somewhere outside of the united states the industry suited to these costs must compete at the markets mercy (from, Free to Choose). It's the same with corn or any other resource. And if we begin to focus on quality, the free market will not allow for a fair distribution of quality created productions to be evenly distributed across the populace. Not when the market can create in quantity a cheaper version of quality (not to mention turning the quality products into "intellectual properties" and causing them to become exclusively owned in the oligopoly so they may drive down the price of the quality product as to exclude competition).
Let's hope the Mexican people can unify, but unify to a greater life for their people by breaking the dependence they have to trade with the united states. Let them take this signal as a way to realize the infidelities of their government when faced with the option of people or power.
Hopefully, Subcommandante Marcos leads these farmers into the Chiapas for a lesson on unification.
NAFTA may have come in under Clinton Era, but who's responsible
for giving all the kick backs to the corn industry in the US?
Eh? You see, the catch is Mexican tariffs supplanted the kickbacks in the US.
No US kickbacks, maybe, just maybe Mexico and US could get a more even
playing field. But that isn't the case. Theory v practicum. Ideals v realism
Which is kind of crazy because the corn Senators all backed high tariffs on
Brazilian biofuel, while championing bigger kickbacks for US corn. Not very nice?
Now, who is the biggest corn state representative of all the presidential
candidates? Contrary to all the media swooning, it played a major course in Iowa.
Here's an old article the broaches the subject at hand,
Clinton-Obama Differences Clear In Senate Votes
Records Can Be Baggage In Bids for White House
Monday, January 1, 2007,
"One of the sharpest substantive divides is over ethanol, an issue of particular potency in Iowa.
The vote in question was an effort to block a proposed amendment to the 2005 energy bill
that would have established an ethanol mandate for refineries. "If there were ever an onerous,
anti-competitive, anti-free-market provision, this is it," said Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.),
who led the effort and who warned that non-farming states could face spikes in gasoline prices
because of supply limitations. Clinton at the time was campaigning for reelection and was
one of 28 senators to support her colleague's failed bid."
"At the time, New York had no ethanol industry. Iowa has more ethanol plants than any other state.
"If someone voted or has a position against ethanol, it will be used by their opponents and it will be
another issue they need to overcome" with voters in the Iowa caucuses, said Steffen Schmidt,
a professor of political science at Iowa State University."
..."Obama voted for the ethanol mandate. "As a senator from a corn-growing state, Obama will have no
problem on the ethanol issue and can tout his credentials on this score with a clear conscience,"
said Peverill Squire, who teaches politics at the University of Iowa."
source: washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/31/AR2006123101004_pf.html
You may be surprised at how complete is the superiority of indigenous food production and how complete is the lie of US-style "laissez-faire" capitalism.
Indigenous food production follows nature's survival of the fittest, so the value is tops. Value is outputs/inputs, or nutrition over land and labor. In most indigenous production there are no other inputs, no draining of ancient aquifers or diverting/damming of rivers, no petro-chemicals or petro-mechanics, no "intellectual property" licensed seeds, no production loans. Minimizing inputs not only maximizes food value, it also preserves the biosphere and avoids capitalist slavery. The nutrition of the indigenous varieties are tops because all races of humans except cold-climate anglo-saxons carry forth the genetic trait to select spicy/tasty/colorful food for maximum nutritional/health benefits, including protein and antioxidants/antipathogens. Value of indigenous production is thereby tops, including cultural.
Capitalist food production has extremely low value due to the massive hidden costs, including numerous elements of destruction to the biosphere and to societies by the use of fossil fuel. Endless warfare "necessary" to secure oil production, generations of wage slavery, decades of air/water pollution, soil and aquifer depletion (million year legacies) and the coming climate catastrophes (2/3 of species slated for extinction within 30 years). Anglo-selection of corn varieties with very low nutritional value, massive petro-chemical and parasitic financial and "intellectual property" inputs, manipulation of the market by concentrated power in violation of ethical/civil laws, destruction of centuries old sustainable, stable, fulfilling traditions, defiance of the will of the majority and the "manufacture of consent" from the rest.
Very simply, "laissez-faire"/neoliberal capitalism, and the elitism behind it, have to be crushed and this starts with action of consumers to demand maximum value from the markets. Urban/middle class Mexicans are under the corrupt thumb of Mexican capitalists/elitists tied in with the US. They may or may not join the revolution in time to save their rural peers - or their own health.
NAFTA is the simple exploitation of the Mexican poor with women and children being affected the most. The husbands, brothers are leaving their farms to risk their lives on getting across the 'Terrorist Wall' to conceited America. In Mexico, the indigenous and formally educated Mexicans are very knowledgeable of the United States history of exploiting "Our America."
I will not blame all on the business of NAFTA and American corporations. Many rich Mexicans have learned well from the greediness of the United States power elite, and corporations with support of the administrations of the last 150 years.
It will happen that when the conceited, and arrogant America fails with in the pursuit of world power, Mexico will survive America's folly in controlling (stealing) other peoples resources...calling it the "Invisible hand" of the economic market… Well, most Mexicans know that's a plain lie and America's karma is clearly exposing its ugly face in many areas...
Another gift brought to you by the Clinton Administration.
"Mr. Calderón has fought back. In a speech on Jan. 7, he declared that the free-trade agreement had brought Mexicans lower prices for goods while increasing exports fourfold, even when oil is excluded."
Hahahahaha, Calderon is an ass of the empire. I am just hoping that after his "administration", Mexico will get rid of the "free" market policies and joins the social movements taking place in South America.
Unfortunately, Mexico is closer to the USA than to Venezuela...
I still have some hope though.
On the other hand, what are all these small farmers going to do? Cross the border to the US undocumented? Use their farms to grow illegal crops for a drug lord? Starve to death?
If we want to stop those horrendous Mexicans from coming here and having babies, and stealing our jobs and welfare, we need to support their cause and oppose the so called "free market"
evil white racist american republicans at it again.
This article has just this moment inspired my own answer to several "biofuel" problems.
If we need "biofuels", wouldn't it make sense to make use of something that grows fast and large, such as a sequoia? And if we need genetically modified plants, why can't they be as a result of crossing the sequoia with a high octane yielding plant, perhaps one even better than corn or willow?
For certain, much less corn if any, would need to be taken out of the food chain, which in itself relieves some biofuel negatives.
Wouldn't this be worthy of Monsanto and others's greed, and the public need for cheaper sustainable fuel?
Are we being short changed and manipulated by the corporations? Isn't the current direction highly questionable?
Isn't it absolutely wrong?