Leydy Pech, the indigenous beekeeper who stopped Monsanto's GM soybean planting

In 2000, the Mayan beekeeper Leydy Araceli Pech Marín (Hopelchén, Campeche, 1965) noticed how the multinational company Monsanto began to cultivate small plots of genetically modified soybeans in Mexico in the state where she was born and where she learned beekeeping techniques.

By 2012 it was not just small crops, but large-scale agribusiness projects, which began to diminish and contaminate the honey it produced, putting the food supply, the environment and the livelihood of the Mayan communities at risk.

To avoid the devastation of the ecosystem of the Mexican southeast, Pech started a coalition that same year and filed a lawsuit against the Mexican government to stop the planting of genetically modified soybeans.

In November 2015, in response to the lawsuit, the Supreme Court of Mexico ruled unanimously that the government should carry out prior consultations with indigenous communities before planting genetically modified seeds.

In 2017, the government revoked the permit that Monsanto (now owned by Bayer) had in seven states, including Campeche and Yucatán.

This struggle has made Pech one of the winners of the Goldman Prize for the environment, recognizing the leadership of the Mayan beekeeper in her defense of the ecosystem of the Mexican southeast.

The award given to Pech became a trending topic this Monday afternoon.

We are honored to announce the recipients of the 2020 #GoldmanPrize: Leydy Pech, Kristal Ambrose, Chibeze Ezekiel, Nemonte Nenquimo, Lucie Pinson, and Paul Sein Twa.

https://t.co/QlGofKBLdH pic.twitter.com/ACsHVrnAfC

- Goldman Prize (@goldmanprize) November 30, 2020

"We Mayans have a very important relationship with our bees," Pech said in an interview with the Traveling Festival and prior to the presentation of the documentary

“It had never happened that indigenous communities beat a company like Monsanto,” says Pech in the interview conducted in May 2020. “Today we demand that the right to be consulted be effective, because the planting of the soy, ”he says.

Pech has focused his beekeeping practices on

a species of native bees that has been cultivated for centuries by Mayan communities.

She is also a promoter of sustainable development for rural Mayan communities.

"The historic struggle of Pech and the coalition establishes precedents in Mexico, and is already a model for other movements of indigenous struggle for the protection of their rights and the defense and management of the land," highlighted the Goldman Prize when granting the award. .

Due to her Mayan origin, Pech has been the object of discrimination throughout her struggle.

"Upon seeing her in person after her victory in court, a Monsanto attorney commented that he could not believe that this little woman had defeated them," notes the Goldman Prize communication team.

Currently, Pech continues to carry out activism to protect the ecosystem of the Yucatan Peninsula and has openly expressed her rejection of the Mayan Train project.

"It is a project that adds to the dispossession and rape suffered by indigenous peoples," said the beekeeper.

Protecting Mexico's bees, forests, and Mayan traditions, Leydy Pech's coalition stopped a harmful GMO soybean invasion.

#GoldmanPrize https://t.co/moA3mAlzI3

- Goldman Prize (@goldmanprize) November 30, 2020

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