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Norma writes for Selvedge Magazine
Issue #109 -- Rise Up, November 2022
Norma Writes for Selvedge Latin Issue #89
Why We Left, Expat Anthology: Norma’s Personal Essay
Norma Contributes Two Chapters!
- Norma Schafer and Oaxaca Cultural Navigator LLC has offered programs in Mexico since 2006. We have over 30 years of university program development experience. See my resume.
Study Toursd are personally curated and introduce you to Mexico's greatest artisans. They are off-the-beaten path, internationally recognized. We give you access to where people live and work. Yes, it is safe and secure to travel. Groups are limited in size for the most personal experience.
Programs can be scheduled to meet your travel plans. Send us your available dates.
Designers, retailers, wholesalers, universities and other organizations come to us to develop weaving relationships, customized itineraries, study abroad programs, meetings and conferences. It's our pleasure to make arrangements.
Select Clients *Selvedge Magazine-London, UK *Esprit Travel and Tours *Penland School of Crafts *North Carolina State University *WARP Weave a Real Peace *Methodist University *MINNA-Goods *Smockingbird Kids
Tell us how we can put a program together for you! Send an email norma.schafer@icloud.com
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NAFTA, Hybrid Corn, Oaxaca Milpas and Climate Change: Which Corn Will Survive?
June 16, 2010, The Nation, Retreat to Subsistence by Peter Canby
http://www.thenation.com/article/36330/retreat-subsistence
Here is a lengthy and worthwhile article written about the breakdown of NAFTA promises and the pressure on the indigenous Oaxaca farmer to give up small plot farming of native corn, beans and squash (milpas) in favor of supposedly more highly productive hybrid corn. Never mind that it takes fossil fuel energy in the form of chemical fertilizers to feed hybrid corn. Never mind that insecticides and herbicides required for this type of farming destroy the wild herbs and vegetables that could be the source for food evolution and seed adaptation. The author suggests that it is the indigenous farmers who will develop the crops that will sustain drought, heat, cold, etc. because they will need to continue to feed their families and communities. Just as maize was cultivated 8,000 years ago, the evolution of food will continue as long as adaption is politically and economically supported.
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Posted in Cultural Commentary, Food & Recipes
Tagged chemical fertilizers, corn, food evolution, growing corn in Mexico, milpas, NAFTA, Peter Canby, politics of corn, Retreat to Subsistence, The Nation