**5. Challenges of planting native maize in Kalamazoo**

Native Corn seeds are essential actors in the sustainable diet of many families in Mexico and Central America. The commitment and devotion of Wixárika families to *Tatéi Niwetsika* ("Our Mother Corn") and *Yuri'Ikú* ("True Corn") are essential for the survival of families and their genealogies, not only of human beings but beyond humans in El Gran Nayar. However, with the increase in families migrating to strategic points and other latitudes, families have been forced to find alternative ways to gain access to sustainable food in all geographies. In 2020, Mexico developed new laws that currently dictate the future of native seeds. Politicians approved a bill that gave farmers the right to grow landrace corn without the fear of growing near Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) fields. Corporations such as Monsanto have lost their power over the types of seeds to grow in Mexico. This development represents a giant leap in Mexican food forms, sovereignty, and agricultural sustainability. This favors native seeds since it is guaranteed that their growth outside of isolated communities can grow without being cross-pollinated and genetically damaged by hybrid seeds. According to Frabotta [27] and Peikes [28] Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) decreed that by 2024, Mexico would eliminate the use of transgenic corn. This will positively influence the production and consumption of seeds. Soon, many Mexican farmers will be in need to change their paradigm and return to the traditional cultivation of seeds. To have transgenic-free agriculture means to adopt the traditional ways of planting crops to assure food security in the future.

Many Mexican citizens have realized the impact of GMOs and the consumption of GMOs in corn tortillas on the health of people and ecosystems. This helps families to make the decision of consuming Native seeds in a more conscious and responsible way. Although Maize was domesticated in Mesoamerica around 5500 years ago, today more than ever, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities advocate for the diversity of Native Maize in Mexico. This advocacy leads us to take up social and community commitment outside the context of local Native communities. Seeds, as well as people, also travel and seek other environments to germinate. Some seeds out of fear of people have lived in museum basements and out of the sunlight. Other seeds live guarded by the Elders with the fear of sowing and losing the last family seeds and their ancestral genealogy. Project on La Milpa in other latitudes helps us understand

#### *Teachings of Tatéi Niwetsika: Native Maize from Northern Mexico DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.112629*

how seeds can be sown responsibly, ethically, and with awareness of social justice to grow plants that have crossed colonial borders. Thus, in this way, decolonize our diet and way of seeing corn as just another plant.

The contradictions and controversies about the La Milpa project have been various. During a recent panel presentation in El Gran Nayar, we had a dialog with the community in the audience. Some Elders shared their suggestions to cultivate earlier to avoid the cold from the north. Others expressed their concerns about the purpose of the project. A question that leaves us thinking and reflecting on the project is an ethical and moral question. The seeds of La Milpa Project in Tepic-Kalamazoo project belong to the Indigenous peoples of El Gran Nayar and they depend on the ceremony and ritual of many families. Within the Indigenous peoples, each family is clear about the role of each one in the care and distribution of the seeds. For example, in Y + rata, seeds are only given to those with spiritual responsibilities and community roles [7]. It is necessary to emphasize that many families feed themselves and support their families in many areas that include the cultural and ceremonial aspects of these seeds. Also, some families within the Wixárika community do not have enough space to plant each year and their seeds are saved for fear of losing them. In the La Milpa Project, we are very aware of the goals of the project. We aim to understand how Native Maize from Northern Mexico adapt to other climates with the hope of bridging communities together.

### **6. Conclusions**

This chapter highlights the traditional techniques of cultivating Maize from ceremonial spaces to the Cornfield, with the intention of outlining the importance of community participation in the academic investigation. The author discusses the challenges of adapting to Native seeds in Michigan and the different perspectives of communities in Tepic and Kalamazoo in relationship to the growth of Our Mother Corn. The chapter emphasizes the importance of cultivating Native seeds employing traditional agriculture to maintain the agency of plants and learn from the seeds sustainable and reciprocal ways to relate with the land. The Milpa becomes a school that teaches us about diversity, responsibility, sacrifice, and physical and spiritual labor. The seeds teach us as agents of change the importance of sharing with other people and having responsibilities. The relationship is reciprocal since if people do not take care of the seeds, the seeds will give us fruits. Undoubtedly, people learn about caring for a sentient being, with agency, and effect on humans. In *La Milpa Project*, students learn that seeds are another type of being with the will and intention to germinate, grow, and bear fruit. When a plant does not grow, it does not have the will to teach us or learn from the new environment. They are simply not interested in growing, even if they are given care for their growth.

A key question in the work of food sovereignty is the question of whom the seeds belong to, specifically who owns or oversees the dispensation of the Native Corn seeds. In the La Milpa project, we acknowledge that the Indigenous peoples of Gran Nayar have developed scientific methods to guarantee a reciprocal relationship with Maize. For good germination, growth, and development of plants, specifically Native Corn seeds, a community or a group of people must follow an ontological relationship with seeds. When that relationship is lost, the way we see other beings is also lost. The ontological relationship between people and the land are key concepts in the philosophy of Indigenous peoples. Handmade tortillas made with Native Corn still

preserve the reciprocal relationship between people and plants. People make tortillas and other Corn-based foods as offerings during cultivation. With a change in ideology, the commodification of Corn-based foods began in Mexico and abroad. In the La Milpa project, we acknowledge the importance of the connection between seeds and community, specifically speakers of the Wixárika language. For students, they learn about specific methodologies and epistemologies to conceive plants like Our Mother Corn as kin. The different components of the project are necessary for social change, not only to reverse colonial ideas to conceive food but to decolonize our diet and find ways to secure food in times of climate change and food scarcity.
