The Global Diversity Forum

I participated in a workshop today at the Global Biodiversity Forum, a weekend long event on biodiversity and trade politics. We organized a panel to call attention to the problem of contamination of Mexican traditional corn varieties with genetically engineered corn from the United States.

The most amazing part of the panel was the presentation by two campesino farmers – Melesio and Rosario – from Oaxaca, the region of the country where the contamination was found. They traveled to Cancun by bus and plane – it was the first time they had ever been on a plane and the first time they had ever seen the ocean! They brought a huge bag full of cobs of many of their corn varieties – purple corn, yellow corn, white corn, multi-colored corn – along with stories about the different uses for each of the corn types.

The message that they brought to the panel was really moving – for everyone in the room. For the campesinos, corn is life. Their culture is intricately interwoven with corn. So for them, contamination of the corn varieties is much more than just about impacts that genetic pollution will have on their environment. Contamination of corn is a total assault on a central icon of their culture.

It’s opportunities like this that make this job special. Watching the campesinos give their presentation – confident and calm in the completely foreign environment in which they found themselves, seeing the immense personal pride they took in all their corn varieties, this is why we are doing the work we are doing. They gave more meaning to my presence here than anything I’ll probably do the rest of the meeting.

Doreen Stabinsky is a campaigner against Genetic Engineering for Greenpeace