Meditation: Trade and Food Sovereignty

In Guatemala and in some parts of southern Mexico indigenous Mayan people consider themselves “people of corn.” The Mayan creation story told in the Pop Wuh describes Ixmucane, the great grandmother, forming people out of corn dough after other earthly materials proved unsuitable. Mayan people are so deeply identified with corn that in the Q’eq’chi language the word for the corn tortilla, “wa” is the root of the verb to eat, “wa’ak.” Essentially, you are not “eating” unless corn is served.

This deep cultural connection with food resonates with the Christian faith. In Luke’s gospel, the disciples walking on the road to Emmaus only recognize the risen Jesus when he breaks and shares bread with them. The Food Sovereignty movement takes the notion of food security to this kind of level, respecting cultural and religious connections to food that go beyond people consuming calories.

Food sovereignty includes farmers’ and consumers’ right to choose what foods they want to eat and grow. It prioritizes local agricultural production to feed people before production mainly for export. Among other things, food sovereignty emphasizes the right of countries to protect farmers from trying and failing to compete with agricultural imports that come into their markets priced below the cost of production.

Trade negotiations at the World Trade Organization have been tense for the past several years. Agriculture is one cause of the deadlocks that continue to stall negotiations. Economic giants like the United States and the European Union insist that they will only cut subsidies and domestic supports to their farmers when resource poor countries drop their tariffs (taxes) on imported food and agricultural products. Resource poor countries see developed countries’ subsidies and other domestic supports to farmer as contributing to over production – a major cause of plummeting commodity prices around the world.

Many resource poor countries are strapped with debt, and have adopted strict fiscal management programs recommended by the International Monetary Fund that limit their ability to support farmers with subsidies, price supports or even effective extension programs. Tariffs on imported goods help countries to keep their farmers’ products competitive with imports.

Almost 3 billion people live on less that $2 a day in resource poor countries around the globe – and many of these survive on small-scale farming. In a country like Guatemala, at least half the “people of corn” earn their living in farming. Opening up markets to an influx of cheaper, subsidized agricultural goods from developed countries will likely displace large numbers of farmers. When they leave their homes cultural traditions, languages, and flavorful varieties of corn will be lost.

Reflective Action : Think for a moment about your family traditions, especially foods enjoyed at holidays throughout the year. Now think what it would be like to no longer have access to these foods because farmers have stopped producing it.

Learn more about food sovereignty at: http://www.foodsovereignty.org/new/. Ask your Representative to co-sponsor a Congressional ResolutionHRES 115 Expressing the sense of the United States House of Representatives that the United States should adhere to moral and ethical principles of economic justice and fairness in developing and advancing United States international trade treaties, agreements, and investment policies.

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