Title of the talk:  “Struggles in the defense of the native corn of Oaxaca”

Speakers:  Gabriela Linares and Aldo Gonzalez, from UNOSJO – Union of Organizations of the Sierra Juarez de Oaxaca- and members of Espacio Estatal en Defensa del Maiz Nativo de Oaxaca

Date:  Tuesday October 3, 2023 
Time:  2:30-3:30 PM
Location:  Lake Mendota room, Dejope Residence Hall (640 Elm Dr.)

Espacio Estatal en Defensa del Maiz Nativo de Oaxaca is a group of organizations that has been working since 2001 for the defense of corn and the seeds from Indigenous peasants in their territories through resistance and defense of their milpa fields and their ancestral traditions around agriculture and food.  Gabriela and Aldo, will talk about the pressures that peasants are enduring to maintain a cultural legacy to grow their own seeds -seeds that have been passed down from generations- and to share them with others.

In 2018, after decades of international research done in a corn landrace from Totontepec, a village in the Sierra Mixe of Oaxaca, they learned about an agreement made between community leaders in that village and BioN2 (a subsidiary of Mars Inc.) about access and benefit-sharing of local genetic resources. Aldo and Gabriela will talk about implications of these agreements and the reactions of on-the-ground communities, activists and Mexican academics around this topic.

Everyone is welcome. Talk will be in Spanish with simultaneous English interpretation. Support for guest speakers made possible by the generous support of LACIS and a grant from the Ira and Ineva Reilly Baldwin Wisconsin Idea Endowment.