When genetically modified (GM) imported corn was found growing in Oaxaca and the Tehuacán Valley of Puebla, Mexico (2000, it intensified the debate between activists, academics, and government officials about the effects of trade liberalization on Mexican corn farmers and maize biodiversity. In order to understand the challenges faced by corn farmers and in situ diversity, it is important to contextualize GM corn within the recent neoliberal corn regime and its regional manifestations. This essay offers a case study of how indigenous corn farmers from the southern Tehuacán Valley have adapted to such neoliberal reforms and economic crisis by combining local corn production with US-bound labor migration.

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La Red de Semillas Libres de Colombia (RSL) cuestiona la expansión de, y el discurso dominante sobre, la biotecnología agrícola y los Derechos de Propiedad Intelectual (DPI) respecto a las semillas, o lo que se conoce como biohegemonía. Sostenemos que, a pesar de sus desafíos, la RSL cuestiona la biohegemonía por medio de demandas legales que apoyan la «soberanía en semillas» y reformulan el discurso alusivo a las variedades de semillas locales como materias primas y recursos para ser «descubiertos», «inventados» y mercantilizados por la industria y la tecnociencia occidental. Con base en la investigación etnográfica, extendemos el concepto de biohegemonía para incluir la lucha y el cuestionamiento al examinar cómo la red busca aquella soberanía.

The Red de Semillas Libres (Network of Free Seeds) in Colombia contests the expansion of, and dominant narratives on, agricultural biotechnology and intellectual property rights (IPRs) protections on seedor what has been called 'biohegemony'. We argue that despite its challenges, the Network contests 'biohegemony' through lawsuits, supporting 'seed sovereignty', and reframing the often taken-for-granted discourse on local seed varieties as raw material and a resource to be 'discovered', 'invented' and commodified by industry and Western-based technoscience. Based on ethnographic research, we extend the concept of biohegemony to include struggle and contestation by examining how the Network pursues seed sovereignty.

This article explores the labour behind local food in the Canadian Atlantic province of Nova Scotia. Based on surveys and interviews with farmers, migrant farmworkers, and farmers’ market consumers in the province, we suggest that the celebration of local food by government and industry is a form of “local washing.” Local washing hides key aspects of the social relations of production: in this case, it hides insufficient financial and policy supports for Nova Scotian farms and the increased reliance on migrant farmworkers via the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program and the Temporary Foreign Worker Program. Our research found that a growing reliance on migrant farmworkers was not just the case for larger, industrial farms, but also for smaller farms participating in local and alternative food initiatives, like farmers’ markets and fresh produce subscription boxes. Additionally, our surveys show that while farmers’ market shoppers expressed an interest in supporting local foods, they reported knowing little about farm workers or working conditions. Our paper contributes to the literature on local and alternative food initiatives by connecting the relations of production to consumption. Rather than focusing solely on the nature of the relationships between farmers and consumers and the values embodied in direct agricultural markets, this research explores the central role of permanently temporary migrant workers in local agriculture.