WC: 244
“Corn was probably the only crop cultivated in every state of the Union” pg 34 Kara Newman quoting Arturo Warman from around 1890-1900
“According to Foucault, biopower is constituted by “numerous and diverse techniques for achieving the subjugation of bodies and the control of populations,” including the disciplining and regulating of bodies, or “anatomo-politics,” and “biopolitics,” or the regulating of the species body, “imbued with the mechanics of life serving as the basis of the biological processes”.” Page 69 Kyla Tompkins
“…the dance takes various forms among different communities, the core of it is the same, a commemoration of the gift of corn by an ancestral corn woman.” Pg. 31 Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz (An Indigenous People’s History of the United States)
Gamboa, S. (2017, January 27). Mexico Senator: Stop Collaborating With The U.S., Buying Its Corn. Retrieved January 29, 2017, from http://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/mexico-senator-stop-collaborating-u-s-buying-its-corn-n713056
Texts from the program relate to the first chapter of An Indigenous People’s History of the United States. Corn is discussed as a spiritual symbol of value and tradition amongst several indigenous groups that migrated from Mexico into the southeastern United States around 1850. The quote describing the Green Corn Dance shows cultural growth from the shared interest of corn. Corn production spiked when its use extended to animal feed after 1890. The first hybrid corn seed emerged in commercial use in 1933 and as this temporary boost in results occurred, government subsidies for the crop emerged to gain more land for production throughout the 30’s and 40’s until World War 2 which was followed by chemical fertilizers. The subsidization of corn after the first few waves of hybridized seeds plus the developed relationship between the meat industry and using corn feed represents an unhealthy transition of commodifying animal life. By the 1970’s the process of refining corn into fructose had been perfected and the futures market of corn syrup banned it by 1988 because it had become so heavily relied upon as an economic shortcut in food. Humans were subjected to an experiment of an economic shortcut just like the cows we eat, and legislation helped solidify it. The news article discusses current Mexico-U.S. relations as headlined, “Mexico Senator: Stop Collaborating with U.S., Buying Its Corn”. The socio-political identity of corn has transformed into an identifiable biopolitical tool with tremendous economic value.
Annotated Bibliography
- Newman, K. (2013). The secret financial life of food: From commodities markets to supermarkets. New York: Columbia University Press.
- Tompkins, K. W. (2012). Racial indigestion: Eating bodies in the nineteenth century. New York: New York University Press.
Gamboa, S. (2017, January 27). Mexico Senator: Stop Collaborating With The U.S., Buying Its Corn. Retrieved January 29, 2017, from http://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/mexico-senator-stop-collaborating-u-s-buying-its-corn-n713056
A Mexican Senator said to stop collaborating with the U.S. and to stop buying their corn because the people of Mexico are threatened by President Trump’s offensive stance on building a wall and want action. Mexican President Pena Nieto was scheduled to meet with Trump on Tuesday, but the meeting was canceled as Trump continued to insist that Mexico pay for a border wall, along with suggestions of a 20% border tax. The resistance of the history behind American corn comes to light by defying a key commodity and potentially could appeal to Mexican culture for a corn roots movement by resisting American corn growing it at home supports my observation between texts of how corn can be used as a tool to bring together communities in relation to the commodified alternative to show it is a biopolitlcal tool.