La Ley De la Madre Tierra (or How Bolivia Inspires Us All)

Bolivia is in the process of passing La Ley De la Madre Tierra (The Law of Mother Earth), which would give nature similar rights as those granted to human beings. The country, governed by Latin America’s first indigenous president, Evo Morales, plans to establish 11 laws for Earth. According to the Guardian, there would include:

the right to life and to exist; the right to continue vital cycles and processes free from human alteration; the right to pure water and clean air; the right to balance; the right not to be polluted; the right to not have cellular structure modified or genetically altered; and the right to not be affected by mega-infrastructure and development projects that affect the balance of ecosystems and the local inhabitant communities.

The Guardian also states, the Bolivian government is planning to “establish a ministry of mother earth” and appoint to it an ombudsman. For specific details about the draft legislation and other specifics, please refer to the embedded copy of Ley de Derechos de la Madre Tierra at the bottom of the post.

We've talked at some length (in a course I'm teaching - ALS 2984) about the quinoa commodification crisis in Bolivia, but there are a variety of other environmental/economic/sociocultural issues at play. Some of Bolivia’s environmental woes stem from its heavy mining of raw materials, including tin, silver and gold. The underlying hope is that Ley De la Madre Tierra will help protect nature before it’s far too late. Undarico Pinto, the leader of the Confederación Sindical Única de Trabajadores Campesinos de Bolivia told the Guardian that the law ” …will make industry more transparent. It will allow people to regulate industry at national, regional and local levels.”

The law, which is still in draft form (see copy below), comes as a part of the complete re-organization of the Bolivian legal system, which is, according to reports, being influenced by an indigenous view of nature (what does this mean for Bolivia? for South American politics? What would this mean in a USA context?). The country’s indigenous spiritual beliefs put the Earth deity, Pachamama (who, it is important to note, is conceptualized as a living being) “at the center of all life.” When interviewed, Foreign Minister David Choquehuanca emphasized Bolivia's traditional indigenous respect for Pachamama was vital to prevent climate change. Perhaps we'll see similar success with La Ley De la Madre Tierra.

As reported in the aforementioned Guardian article, the current draft of The Law of Mother Earth reads:

She is sacred, fertile and the source of life that feeds and cares for all living beings in her womb. She is in permanent balance, harmony and communication with the cosmos. She is comprised of all ecosystems and living beings, and their self-organisation.

While undoubtedly a welcome and remarkably innovative change in policy, one mustn't overlook Ecuador's similar attempt to grant inalienable rights to Madre Tierra. Guardian journalist John Vidal is quick to point out that "new laws are not expected to stop industry in its tracks...it is not clear yet what actual protection the new rights will give in court to bugs, insects and ecosystems." This is a difficult type of calculus that philosophers, economists, biologists, ecologists, and various others have been struggling with for decades. Bolivia may not get the initial equation 100% correct, but they certain are creating an excellent precedent, clearing the path for others to follow. Perhaps through collaborative moralistic-hedonic mathematics we can arrive at a more systems-oriented approach to policy formation (or what you might call a politics of biotic community-ism).

For more information (I've borrowed [with attribution and appreciation] heavily from Wend and the Guardian) see Wend, The Raw Story, Guardian, a super brief Wikipedia entry (perhaps a reader of this blog [or all the readers] could conduct a bit of La Ley De la Madre Tierra research and add depth and detail to the Wiki entry?), and the Government of Bolivia (in Spanish).

Ley de Derechos de la Madre Tierra - Estado Plurinacional de Bolivia

Food & Agri-culture from Buenos Aires to Lima @ 10mph

CFAN3480, GLOS3900, CFAN3000H, or AGRO5999

(Course Numbers: 34502, 34795, 35332, 17143)

3 credits

Wednesdays, 6:00-9:00pm

335 Borlaug Hall (UMN) 

Proviso: Although this course will be conducted at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities (specifically the St. Paul campus) and not at my academic homebase, I believe this an innovative approach to (a)teaching, (b)learning, (c)social media int the classroom, (d)community-based and experiential learning models, (e)food systems research. You might not be able to enroll in the course for academic credit (unless you are planning to study "abroad" at [or transfer to] UMN next semester) but I encourage you to follow Dr. Porter's blog/website to keep up with his travels and observations. And, if time and finances permit, I definitely encourage you to participate in a trans-continental bicycle tour (or race) with Tour d’Afrique (a great guiding company). Such an excursion might seem to more closely resemble a relaxing (albeit rather active) holiday, but the outcome of any sort travel/tourism is intimately related to the effort (speaking here of the intellectual sense of the word) you put in. Porter's decision to use the bicycle tour as a means to better understand the South American foodscape is intriguing for a variety of reason (think pace, scale, observational perspective, etc.), but is largely dependent upon his aptitude for critical engagement and reflective thought. 

Instructors: Paul Porter and Mary Brakke

Description: This course provides students with an introduction to food, agriculture and agroecosystems in four South American countries (Argentina, Chile, Bolivia and Peru).  Dr. Paul Porter will participate in the Vuelta Sudamericana, a bicycle expedition departing Buenos Aires, Argentina on September 25 and arriving in Lima, Peru on December 13.  As he travels he will be observing the food, agriculture and agroecosystems and relate these observations back to the class.  Thus Dr. Porter will be in the classroom just at the start of the semester, and bicycling in South America the remainder of the semester.   The class will be co-taught with Dr. Mary Brakke, who will be with the class the whole semester.  This class is an interdisciplinary approach to studying agricultural systems.  We will evaluate various crops produced in the different countries, assess water availability, climate, physical infrastructure such as roads, and explore economic considerations such as market development, availability of credit, and community co-ops.  We will learn about multiple agricultural research organizations located in these countries and how their research objectives relate to agriculture and food security. 

The class will involve as a series of faculty guest lectures covering a wide array of professional activities in South America.  Dr. Porter will to provide daily written and audio-blogs of his experiences, focusing on food, agriculture and agroecosystems (and to a lesser extent the ride itself).  He will also have direct weekly phone conversations back to the students in the classroom.  His daily blogs will include 1) the ending location, distance traveled and elevation, 2) an assessment of the water situation and climate, 3) a description of the food he eats and what the local population eats, 4) an assessment of the agroecosystems, 5) an assessment of the culture and infrastructure, and 6) a conversation, sight, and/or reflection for the day.  In 2009 and 2010, with the same focus on food, agriculture and agroecosystems, Dr. Porter traveled over 7,200 miles with other bicyclers from Tour d’Afrique (TDA) starting in Cairo, Egypt and ending in Cape Town, South Africa.  Students will be exposed to a summary of experiences through videos, photos and web postings. 

There will be no textbook for the class. Students will be expected to read postings provided on Moodle as well as selected websites (such as http://paulporter.cfans.umn.edu).  The target audience includes students at any grade level from any college who have an interest in 'coming along' for the ride and learning more about food, agriculture and agroecosystems four South American countries. Also in this class students will gain firsthand experience eating food from a local restaurant specializing in South American cuisine.

On a related note (and since I'm a huge advocate of bicycles), here's a thought-provoking and research-related video. Discuss...

The Bicycle City. Trailer from Greg Sucharew on Vimeo.