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HOUSE MEMORIAL 84
48
TH LEGISLATURE
- STATE OF NEW MEXICO -
FIRST SESSION
, 2007
INTRODUCED BY
Ben Lujan
A 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 HOUSE OF
REPRESENTATIVES OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO that the house of
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representatives recognize the significance of native seeds to
the cultural heritage and food security of New Mexico; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the house of representatives
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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