[Grovenet] Legacy of NAFTA talk at Pacific U. 4/17/09

[Alana Graham]

MEXICAN AGRICULTURAL EXPERT SPEAKS TO LEGACY OF NAFTA AND ITS EFFECTS ON FAMILIES

Date:  Friday, April 17, 4:30 PM
Place:  Taylor Auditorium, Marsh Hall (see www.pacificu.edu for directions)

Free and open to the Public.  Reception to follow

Baldemar Mendoza Jimenez, an agro-ecologist from Oaxaca, Mexico, will visit communities across the Pacific Northwest throughout the month of April 2009.  

Mr. Mendoza weaves connections to demonstrate how globalization, the neoliberal economic model and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) have contributed significantly to the increase in migration and poverty in Oaxaca, Mexico.  

At Pacific University Mr. Mendoza will focus on the impact of NAFTA on families.

Baldemar Mendoza Jiménez works for the Union of Organizations of the Sierra Juarez of Oaxaca (UNOSJO) by supporting indigenous communities to practice organic and traditional agriculture.  He has participated in UNOSJO’s informational campaign regarding the contamination of native corn by genetically modified corn.  Mr. Mendoza promotes sustainable agriculture using the farmer to farmer method to attain food sovereignty.

"NAFTA took away price guarantees for corn and other products,” said Mendoza.  “Farmers could not make ends meet and looked for alternatives that would generate income.  They abandoned their lands, they left to work in maquilas and they emigrated to the United States.  Migration has brought the abandonment of the countryside, family disintegration and a decomposition of the tightly-woven community.  Community practices that were an integral part to indigenous Oaxacan communities have been lost.”

Mr. Mendoza will be hosted by Witness for Peace Northwest, with complete Spanish to English interpretation provided by Witness for Peace Mexico Team member Ann Thiesen.  Witness for Peace is a politically independent, nationwide grassroots organization of people committed to nonviolence and led by faith and conscience. WFP’s mission is to support peace, justice and sustainable economies in the Americas by changing U.S. policies and corporate practices which contribute to poverty and oppression in Latin America and the Caribbean.

For more information about this tour or Witness for Peace, or to set up an interview with Baldemar Mendoza Jimenez, please contact Beth Poteet at 509.995.2571 or wfpnw at witnessforpeace.org.  Visit www.witnessforpeace.org/northwest.

Pacific Event Co-Sponsors:  Center for Gender Equity, Humanitarian Center, Environmental Studies, Department of Economics, Students for a Democratic Society, School of Occupational Therapy, Politics and Law Forum, Department of Politics and Government

Dr. Martha Rampton
Professor of History
Director-Center for Gender Equity
Pacific University