From 2010: #Navajo Commercial Farm Using #GeneticallyModified Seeds, Despite Global Protests

By #BrendaNorrell, #CensoredNews, June 16, 2010

"While #IndigenousPeoples protest #Monsanto’s genetically modified seeds around the world, the Navajo Nation’s commercial farm, #NavajoAgriculturalProductsIndustries, continues to use these seeds for commercial crops.

"Haitian farmers are now burning donated Monsanto seeds. In India, thousands of farmers committed suicide after switching from traditional seeds to genetically modified seeds. In Chiapas, Mayan farmers have refused to use the seeds which damaged heritage seed stock. Cross pollination from genetically modified seeds can endanger crops from ancient seed stock in the region.

"#Navajos have long planted century-old corn using traditional #DryFarming. Navajos relied on the stars to know when to plant and sometimes planted in spirals, according to Navajo elders in Rock Point, Arizona.

[...]

"However today the Navajo commercial farm boasts on its website that it plants genetic #HybridCorn seed purchased from '#PioneerSeed Company, #Syngenta Inc., and Monsanto companies." The commercial farm, NAPI, is located on the Navajo Nation near Farmington, N.M., and grows commercial food crops, including corn for potato chips, along with potatoes, wheat and other crops.

"Around the world, #Monsanto and genetically modified seeds have meant death for Indigenous Peoples and their crops."

[...]

"The area of northwest #NewMexico has been known as a 'US Sacrifice Area,' since the 1970s. It is the Navajo people who
have been sacrificed, by way of the US government working in collusion with #corporations and the elected Navajo Nation government.

"While #NAPI continues to use genetically modified seeds on its commercial farm, NAPI also has a #RaytheonMissile manufacturing plant located on the commercial farm where the crops are grown, a fact many would like kept secret. The fact that the Raytheon Missile factory is located on the Navajo farm was censored by Indian Country Today in 2006. At that time, Cuba was expressing interest in purchasing food products from NAPI and Indian Country Today editors demanded
that no research be done on Raytheon's missile plant at the farm or any possible pollutants discharged from Raytheon."

Read more:
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2010/06/navajo-commercial-farm-using.html
#CorporateColonialism #GMOs #BigAg
#EndCapitalism #Colonialism #Decolonize #TraditionalFoods
#Capitalism #CulturalGenocide

From Chapter 14 of #KleeBenally's book, #NoSpiritualSurrender - #IndgenousAnarchy, #InDefenseOfTheSacred:

"Although the #NavajoTribalCouncil established a mass scale farming initiative called '#NavajoAgriculturalProductsIndustry (#NAPI),' the farm has stated on its website that it plants genetic #HybridCorn seed purchased from '#PioneerSeedCompany, #Syngenta Inc., and #Monsanto companies.' In 2014, in an attempt to 'curb' the diabetes epidemic, the #NavajoNationCouncil created a law that raised the sales tax for cheap junk foods sold on Navajo Nation and another removing sales tax from fresh fruits and vegetables. Economic pressure on those already struggling while not addressing the root causes and environmental degradation is par for the course for the #colonial government and Navajo politicians.

"Instead of directly feeding ourselves and communities, we have become dependent on businesses and corporations that are more concerned with profits than our health and well-being. The #BoardingSchools were replete with capitalist indoctrination to forcibly assimilate #Diné children into colonial society. The curriculum was designed with a clear lesson: To feed our families we needed jobs. To have jobs we needed to be trained. To be trained we needed to obey. To not have a job means you’re poor. To employ other workers is to build wealth. To build wealth means success."

Page 302, KleeBenally, NoSpiritualSurrender.