Farmers led by the National Front to Save the Mexican Countryside (FNRCM) came to Mexico City from around the country May 20, for a show of force behind two key demands. Number one: the government must pull Mexico’s staple grains (including corn, wheat, rice, sorghum, beans) out of the USMCA free trade treaty, in order to defend Mexico’s independent farmers and food supply from destruction at the hands of the international cartels and financiers which the treaty serves. Second: Mexico’s Secretary of Economy Marcelo Ebrard must be impeached, because he is selling out the national economy, agriculture included, in the US-Mexican-Canadian negotiations underway on whether to extend or revise the USMCA.
FNRCM organizers expected some 2,000 farmers would participate in their march; when May 20 came around, some media estimated that as many as 3,500 farmers were there.
Their protest was not ignored. The next day, Mexico’s new Secretary of Agriculture, Columba López Gutiérrez, met with around 25 leaders of the FNRCM. López Gutierrez, herself an agronomist by training, had just been named Secretary on May 1. López posted photos from the meeting afterwards on her X and Facebook pages, reporting on the “working meeting” which she and her team had held “with farmers from 19 states across the country, who are members of the National Front to Save the Mexican Countryside, to hear their views on staple grains, and to move forward with a joint plan to strengthen the Mexican countryside.” She reported that setting “reference prices” for produce tied to the costs of production in each region were discussed, along with the challenges of marketing, financing, and storage infrastructure. Another meeting is set for May 28 “to continue making progress on agreements and actions for the sector.”