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SENATE JOINT MEMORIAL 38

TH LEGISLATURE

- STATE OF NEW MEXICO -

FIRST SESSION

, 2007

INTRODUCED BY

Carlos R. Cisneros

A JOINT MEMORIAL

RECOGNIZING THE SIGNIFICANCE OF INDIGENOUS AGRICULTURAL

PRACTICE AND NATIVE SEEDS TO NEW MEXICO'S CULTURAL HERITAGE AND

FOOD SECURITY.

WHEREAS, the ability to grow food is the culmination of

countless generations of sowing and harvesting seeds, which are

an inheritance passed hand to hand from our ancestors to us and

to our children and grandchildren; and

WHEREAS, New Mexico's native foods and crops are the

result of the intermixing of Mesoamerican, pueblo, tribal and

Hispano cultures that created a unique and diverse indigenous

agricultural system and land-based culture; and

WHEREAS, traditional agricultural systems and native seeds

provide the basis for local food production in acequia, pueblo

and tribal communities, represent the foundation for local food

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security and contribute to the health and well-being of our

communities; and

WHEREAS, in recent reports, New Mexico has been ranked as

having one of the highest rates of food insecurity in the

country, indicating that the ability to produce locally grown

food is in need of dramatic improvement; and

WHEREAS, strengthening local agriculture and indigenous

agricultural practices is a vital strategy for strengthening

food security at the local and state levels and also enables

pueblo, tribal and acequia communities to produce food that is

culturally and spiritually meaningful; and

WHEREAS, traditional agriculture and seed-saving is part

of a culture characterized by communities and families coming

together for communal work such as cleaning acequias and

preparing fields as well as for ceremony, prayers and

blessings, thereby binding our communities, traditions and

cultures together; and

WHEREAS, corporations are manipulating seeds, animals and

wild plants through genetic engineering by cross-species

manipulation of genetic material and are cloning animals for

reproduction, the effect of which on the environment and on

human health has not been studied adequately and is not well

understood; and

WHEREAS, despite unknown health and safety effects,

labeling of genetically engineered or cloned foods is not

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required; and

WHEREAS, corporations are patenting genetic material and

the processes of genetic modification, and corporations have

claims on seeds that prohibit farmers from continuing the seed-

saving practices of their ancestors; and

WHEREAS, genetically engineered crops, such as maize in

Oaxaca, Mexico, and canola in Canada, have escaped into the

environment and contaminated native seeds and wild plants; and

WHEREAS, corporations have sued individual farmers when

corporate-owned genetic material has drifted to neighboring

fields and crops, thereby undermining the ability of farmers to

grow food and the viability of the reproduction of seeds; and

WHEREAS, countries such as Japan and England, and some

counties in Africa, have refused genetically modified foods and

prohibit the introduction of genetically engineered crops on

their lands because of unknown health effects; and

WHEREAS, traditional farmers from tribal, pueblo and

acequia communities have expressed concern about genetic

engineering and patenting of seeds as a threat to their

cultural and spiritual connection to the earth, as a violation

of their rights to save seeds and grow food and as a theft of

cultural property; and

WHEREAS, traditional farmers from pueblo and acequia

communities have come together for a ceremonial seed exchange

and a declaration of seed sovereignty between the traditional

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Native American farmers association and the New Mexico acequia

association; and

WHEREAS, since the signing of that declaration,

resolutions in support of seed sovereignty have been passed by

the Pueblos of Tesuque and Pojoaque, the eight northern Indian

pueblos council, the all Indian pueblo council and the national

congress of American Indians; and

WHEREAS, the traditional Native American farmers'

association and the New Mexico acequia association have formed

the New Mexico food and seed sovereignty alliance and are

seeking support for several objectives, including the

following:

A. protecting native seeds from genetic

contamination;

B. increasing the extent of the cultivation of

native seeds and the raising of small herds of livestock in

pueblos and acequia communities;

C. supporting the livelihood of traditional farmers

and ranchers with financial and educational resources, leading

to improved viability of farming; and

D. increasing the extent to which locally grown

food is served within the same community in which it is grown,

particularly by tribal, public and community institutions;

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE

STATE OF NEW MEXICO that the legislature recognize the

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significance of native seeds to the cultural heritage and food

security of New Mexico; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the legislature support the

efforts of the New Mexico food and seed sovereignty alliance to

prevent genetic contamination of native seeds, strengthen

small-scale agriculture and increase the cultivation of native

crops in their communities; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the New Mexico department of

agriculture be requested to collaborate with the New Mexico

food and seed sovereignty alliance in supporting traditional

farmers in their communities, protecting native seeds and

increasing the cultivation of native seeds by developing

specific policy recommendations; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be

transmitted to the governor, the director of the New Mexico

department of agriculture and the secretary of Indian affairs.

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