Mayan Villagers Resist Mega Hog Farms in Yucatn

[Judi Lynn]

JUNE 16, 2023

BY PATRICIO ELEISEGUI

More than 220 mega hog farms operate in the Yucatan territory, wreaking havoc on water reserves, traditional agriculture, food sovereignty and territorial control by local communities. This industry relies on exports and bases its operation on the looting of natural resources, the subjugation of indigenous peoples, and a low-cost operation based on the creation of precarious employment. These accelerated and intense socio-environmental impacts have multiplied the resistance of local Mayan communities.

“The smell was what woke us up. The green flies, the mosquitoes. The headaches. The pestilence, which at night no longer lets us sleep. Then something appeared inthe fruit, as if it were smoke. The bushes looked sad and would soon dry up. Whenwe realized it, the Kekén farm had already been running for a year.

People stopped cooking outside or leaving the doors open, while the trucks full ofpigs began to pass by, day and night.

This voice and its testimony are from a member of La Esperanza de Sitilpech, a group of self-convened residents of the Sitilpech community, nestled on the edge of Izamal, the lead city of one of the Yucatecan municipalities chosen by the industry as a sacrifice zone for the business of pork export. The testimony could come as well from the Mayan communities of Kinchil, Homún, Chapab, Maxcanú or Tixpéual. All are targets for the appetite of the pork industry, while they also are of key significance for the conservation of water resources and biodiversity.

More:
https://www.counterpunch.org/2023/06/16/maya-villagers-resist-mega-hog-farms-in-yucatan/

[mdelaguna]

1. It is truly horrible and corrupt

Hate that this gorgeous indigenous populated land of local family farm plots and little ranches and forests and beautiful cenotes that are part of the aquifer are being destroyed. For exported pork. Lots of it to China according to my friends in the know down there. These nations should spoil their own territories. That they are in Yucatán speaks to the ability to operate corruptly and affect a historically oppressed group with diminished capacities to fight legally.