My family and I loaded into the family van on Saturday for a trip. Instead of heading out on a picnic or camping in the woods, we headed to Santa Fe to participate in the March On Monsanto. The event was coordinated globally through social media in over 400 cities. As farmers and seed savers, we are well aware of the dangers posed by genetic modification. To my surprise, there were over 400 people at the demonstration on the Santa Fe Railyard. This coincided with the Saturday Farmer’s Market, which created a perfect audience among the Market’s mostly green and liberal crowd. After a few speeches by local activists, the group marched to the state capital—waving signs, banners and carrying puppets that warned of the dangers of genetic modification. The protest culminated in live music and rants of various types. It wasn’t your typical family outing, but it was a great day for being alive nonetheless. Siempre en la lucha.Editor’s note: Scroll on for more photos and a poem by Beata Tsosie-Peña. Message to Monsanto I am my own nation, with self-determination, a voice, and my own boundariesYou cannot encroach your mad science hereThere will be no splicing, dicing, forceful injections to sterilize THIS free willYour campaign of violence will never silence,The power and song of sovereign landscapesYour campaign to dominateRemaining pockets of land-based beauty will failYour twisted esteem has yet to seeThe power of ecology, boomeranged back at you with all the breath and balanceOf pure, reciprocal pollinatorsIts funny the audacity, that monoculture mentalityFor it’s in our inherent biodiversityThat the hungry will be fedIt’s the garden of truth in our heartsThat will keep our encoded memoriesFrom being bled, carried out in sterile labsWhere viruses are shot with intentional precisionEnacting double helix holocausts on seeds we are supposed to protectYour poisoning of generations is a toxic war crimeCarried over from your shameful daysOf bombarding veterans and civilians with an an agent called orangeWhose children with disabilities have yet to seeJustice or healthcare in their daily sunriseYour poisoning of future generations will go no furtherFor while capitalism feeds youAnd sneaky Protection Acts shield your diabolical crew,Well protect this Monsanto, I am boycotting youWatch as consumers change this tideAnd the world community will no longer abideNo one will care when your abominations are set ablazeAnd this place will rejoiceAs Indigenous seed weathers its last era of tyrannyOur desert beauty genetics are as strong as our memoryAnd only we know how to tend and mend,This land where our spirit is rooted, deeper than you knowWe must keep growing our own food, saving heirloom seedsKeep demanding these basic rightsAnd at the very least,change for mandatory gmo labeling is now in sightNature has our back, is creating round up resistant seedBeing classified by your people as a super weedImmune to your poison, is a plant called amaranthThat has fed us through centuries of colonizationWhat a relief and realizationThat we are indeed a living civilizationAdapting and growing amidst such violent supremacyYou can rage into oblivion, drowning in your own greedUnless you accept your deep needTo be retaught lessons of balance with technology, that does not have to bleedIt is time for this first crop of a movement to flourishFor collective action to harvest truth on hallowed groundSweet fruit we inheritedThrough natural law that cannot be patentedSpirit beings of all that is aliveHelp us get through these timesAnd we’ll return to our sacred promiseOur rightful place, as stewards of creativity and land-based graceWe remember now, when it is time to become warriorsWhen our seed is threatened and you have hurt our motherWe’ll stand our ground,Carry solid intention as we walk in massFor this is our nationWith self-determination, a voice, and boundaries,Where only those with soulsIn the end shall pass.—Beata Tsosie-Peña, 2013
Hundreds Of Santa Feans Just Say No To Monsanto
4 min read
Luis Peña
Luis Peña
Luis Peña
