The Impact of Globalization on Food Security and Sovereignty:

An Examination of Maize in Mexico

Kailie Leggett
CSS 493 Carlos Munoz Brenes
5/7/2015

When the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was signed on
January 1, 1994, Mexico had a geography-based comparative advantage for supplying off
season fruits and vegetable to the seemingly endless demand of United States and
Canadian markets (Wise, 2009). The liberalization of agricultural trade agreements was
meant to promote the flow of seasonal fruits and vegetables to these northern hemisphere
countries in return for staple crops and meats to Mexico. However, unlike the World
Trade Organization (WTO) agreements that treat farm subsidies as one of the three
pillars of trade-distorting agricultural protection, the other two being export subsidies
and tariffs, NAFTA failed to regulate farm subsidies (Wise, 2009). This lack of
regulation on highly subsidized, highly mechanized farming operations quickly produced
negative consequences on the Mexican market.
The US farm bill subsidizes U.S crops by billions of dollars (Wise, 2009). This
allows farmers to sell corn at a price below the price of production (known as dumping).
The subsidization of corn in the US has led farmers to plant more corn than the domestic
market can absorb. This has led to an increase in exports to foreign markets. With the
elimination of tariffs and quotas (specifically targeted to protect against these price
distorting practices), Mexico became a perfect market for U.S. corn (Wise, 2009).
Due to these U.S. subsidies Mexican farmers cannot compete with the price of
their own maize against U.S. corn; on average Mexican farmers lost $99 per hectare per
year as a direct result of this free-trade agreement (Wise, 2009). This loss translates to a
$6.6 billion loss to the maize industry nationwide (Wise, 2009). By interrogating the
Global Capitalist Approach to globalization this paper will address how the dumping of
U.S grown corn on the Mexican maize market has impacted the countrys culture,

economic development, and the environment by weakening access to culturally

appropriated food through lack of incentives.
Free trade agreements, such as NAFTA, promote a global capitalist approach and
are promoted by advocates of that epistemology, specifically through transnational
practices. This addresses the relationship in which nations develop with one another
through economic, political, and cultural ideology (Sklair, 1999). Transnational
corporations lead economic practice, capitalist class systems, and political policies that
drive the culture-ideology of consumerism across global systems. Therefore the global
business elite can shape global policies, which in turn shape social movements and
cultural ideology (Sklair, 1999). This approach to understanding globalization lacks any
recognition of the cultural or societal ramifications, concentrating mostly on profit and
ultimately incentivizing culturally insensitive behavior, such with maize in Mexico.
Maize is historically and culturally important to the people who live in Mexico.
The Zapotec of Oaxaca, a southern Mexican state, historically relied heavily on the
caloric content of maize, be it consumed in the form of yht zaa (tortillas made from
sweet corn) or in the case of crop failure yht yhla (tortillas made from maize dough and
banana dough mix) (Gonzlez, 2001). Different parts of maize plants were also utilized at
times constructing roofs from the shoots, leaves, and husks (Parsons, 1970). The people
of Mexico today still value maize for nutrition above other substitutes (Ackerman, Wise,
Gallagher, Ney, & Flores, 2003). As a subsistence crop, Mexico is unique in that the
majority of maize grown in the country is used for consumption, not as livestock feed,
and accounts for a large portion of daily energy and protein intake (Ackerman et. al,
2003).
Beyond tangible benefits, maize cultivation and preparation created as sense of
community amongst villagers, be it women keeping company while grinding maize by
3

hand or in later years at the mechanical mill (Parsons, 1970). Farmers worked together to
keep crops safe from pests, wildlife, and preformed rituals to appease the wrath of deities
expressed through natural disaster (Parsons, 1970). Maize is also a common decoration in
shrines and altars as well as an important part of rituals, such as the ones surrounding the
arrangement of a marriage or casting seeds to receive divination. Maize used as a
decoration in shrines, with seed corn hanging from the roof of the altars (Parsons, 1970).
In the politically, economically, and culturally contentious contemporary Mexican
environment, maizes current cultural importance is told through the Zapatista movement
as a podium to fight against global forces. The Zapatista movement became the public
face of the fight against globalization on the day NAFTA was enacted by staging large
protest in Mexicos southern most region Chiapas (Brandt, 2014). Maize production
remains a very important part of life for farmers in Zapatista communities, who wish to
fight against being dependent on a global economy and feel that having successful maize
crops is part of their political struggle for anatomy (Brandt, 2014). This is expressed in
murals in cities where Zapatistas reside such as one in Oventik where a inside each one of
the corn kernels is a face wearing a characteristic Zapatista ski mask or revolutionaries
yielding corn stalks like weapons (Brandt, 2014).
The corn dumping taking place under U.S subsidized farming is directly spurring
this movement by redefining efficiency for Mexican policy makers. These policy makers
feel that since the country is now supplied on corn, small-scale corn farmers would be
better utilized in maquiladora (factory) labor, whose labor conditions are still unregulated
by the North American Agreement of Labor Cooperation (NAALC), under NAFTA
(Brandt, 2014). This therefore disrupts the traditional culture associated with small-scale
agriculture and forces participation in a globally dependent food system.

The Zapatistas do not stand alone in their criticism in NAFTA and its impact on
economic development. Despite proponents arguments that NAFTA would raise the
standard of living in Mexico and raise the number of high paying jobs in the U.S, quite
the opposite has shown true. Although, certain regions of Mexico, primarily the Northern
ones, and certain sectors, specifically those which adhere to large scale industrial
agricultural practices have benefited from NAFTA this only accounts for 10% of people.
Farmers in the mountainous southern states, (which mountains do not make well for
commercial agricultural operations), have experienced a 10% decrease in labor earnings
for these smaller rural states. In addition an estimated 1.5 million Mexican farmers have
left the farming sector since 1994, pursuing non-farm employment as supplementary
income (Wise, 2007).
This loss of income has also promoted environmentally unsustainable behavior to
make up for the loss of wages. This could either happen through abandonment of
traditional farming practices, with low inputs and high diversity, as found on the milpa
for large scale large-scale agriculture methods associated with specialized monoculture
crops that require extensive irrigation and tilling and rely heavily on inputs such as
fertilizers and pesticides. This leads to an increase in soil erosion, water pollution, and
decreased soil fertility (Ackerman et. al, 2003). Furthermore, many farmers seeking extra
profit off the farm have been contracted to harvest wood for construction and fuel. This
logging is primarily illegal and leads to increased deforestation (Wise, 2007). The
Zapatistas and environmental advocates foresaw many of these problems.
Mitigation of these problems was to be addressed by the creation of The
Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) that oversees the North American
Agreement on Environmental Cooperation (NAAEC). The CEC is headed by a

Secretariat who oversees Submissions on Enforcement Matters (SEM). The SEM

process allows citizens and NGOs the ability to submit written assertions that a Party in
NAFTA is failing in its environmental duties. If the Secretariat determines the submission
meet procedural requirements, the CEC then will contact the offending Party. Depending
on the Partys response a factual record may be developed. As of 2005, the Secretariat
had received 82 citizen submissions but only 18 resulted in a factual record filed. This
process was expected to generate more submissions, but the arduous procedural process
has left many people frustrated with the process (Welts, 2013). Additionally, of the 18
that have produced a factual record, 11 cite environmental problems in Mexico (CEC.org,
2015).
Sustainable economic development and sustainable environmental practices do
not exist separately of each other. In the United Nations World Commission on
Environment and Developments Brundtland Report (1987) it is noted that, economics
and ecology must be completely integrated in decision-making processes, not just to
protect the environment, but also promote development. Therefore, promoting
unsustainable agricultural practices that lead to environmental degradation hurt economic
development (WCED, 1987). When, heavily subsidized corn crops from the United
States do not provide economic incentives for farmers to keep using traditional methods
pertaining to agriculture, farmers may turn to environmentally damaging practices such
as commercial farming with high chemical and resource inputs or illegal logging.
By not incentivizing and overall disregarding the importance of traditional
farming methods and traditional ways of living, economic development is stalled as
people become more dependent on a world economy. Driven by a failed idea of
capitalism, as implemented by corn dumping, people are separated from their culturally

significant food, relating back to a larger idea of food sovereignty, and the right to
culturally appropriate food (Clapp, 2014).
The reality is that the world is participating in a global economy. The WTO is
promoting even more free trade agreements every day, and nearly every country on the
earth is a participant in at least one free trade agreement scheme. Facilitating economic
trade between countries does improve the GDP of the countries involved. The problem
arises when the two countries trading with each other do not have similar agricultural
policy programs. Food is not a commodity that should be at the whim of global market
forces. People have the right to both food security and sovereignty, not subject to large
corporations dictating how food should be produced and marketed.
It is clear when studying movements such as the one headed by the Zapatista how
important culture and history is to understanding the proximate causes and consequences
of global economic policy. Maize is more than just a commodity to be bought and sold. In
Mexico maize is not only a food but also representative of life, culture and the divine.
This subsistence crop sustains both life and lifestyle of the Mexican people and many of
their cultural practices. So, in undercutting the domestic production of maize, the
dumping of U.S. subsidized corn threatens more than the Mexican economy alone, which
leads to increased political conflict. This recognition of culture in food systems is
important to remember as the world economy continues liberalize trade markets.

WorkCitied
Ackerman, F., Wise, T. a, Gallagher, K. P., Ney, L., & Flores, R. (2003). Free trade, corn, and
the environment: environmental impacts of US-Mexico corn trade under NAFTA.
Agriculture, (June), 28. Retrieved from http://ase.tufts.edu/gdae/Pubs/wp/03-06NAFTACorn.PDF
Brandt, M. (2014). Zapatista corn: A case study in biocultural innovation. Social Studies of
Science, 44(6), 874900. http://doi.org/10.1177/0306312714540060
CEC,. (2015). Commission for Environmental Cooperation. Cec.org. Retrieved 7 May 2015,
from http://cec.org
Clapp, J. (2014). Food security and food sovereignty: Getting past the binary. Dialogues in
Human Geography, 4(2), 206211. http://doi.org/10.1177/2043820614537159
Gonzlez, R. J. (Roberto J. (2001). Zapotec Science: Farming And Food In The Northern
Sierra Of Oaxaca. Austin: University of Texas Press. Retrieved from
http://ehrafworldcultures.yale.edu/document?id=nu44-030
Naftanow.org,. (2012). North American Free Trade Agreement | NAFTANow.org. Retrieved 7
May 2015, from http://naftanow.org
Parsons, E. W. C. (1970). Mitla, Town Of The Souls And Other Zapoteco-Speaking Pueblos
Of Oaxaca, Mexico. University Of Chicago Publications In Anthropology; Ethnological
Series. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Retrieved from
http://ehrafworldcultures.yale.edu/document?id=nu44-003
Sklair, L. (2006). Competing conceptions of globalization. http://doi.org/10.1086/421180
Welts, L. (2013). Form Over Function: Procedural Hurdles to the NAAEC Citizen Submission
Process. Commission for Environmental Cooperation. Retrieved from:
www.cec.org/Storage/150/17595_Welts_Form_Over_Function_v.1.docx
Wise, T. a. (2007). Policy Space for Mexican Maize: Protecting Agro-biodiversity by
Promoting Rural Livelihoods. Environment, (February), 126.
Wise, T. (2009). Agricultural dumping under NAFTA estimating the costs of U.S. agricultural
policies to Mexican producers. Medford, MA: Tufts University.
World Commission on Environment and Development. Our Common Future. In G.
Adelson, J. Engell, B. Ranalli, & K. Van Anglen (Eds.), Environment: An
interdisciplinary anthology (pp.142-144). New Haven: Yale University Press.