The recorded lecture for Unit 4 brings light to some ways in which pan-Maya beliefs materialized into agricultural practices. The cultivation of “Milpa” refers to the practice of growing maize, beans, and squash together as they account for one another’s needs in a symbiotic relationship. For example, growing beans is a significant source of Nitrogen saturation in the soil which is vital for the maintenance of productive topsoil and the longevity of croplands (García, López). To a similar end, it is common practice in Maya agricultural tradition to fallow croplands for multiple seasons to restore soil vitality and prevent the sustainable access of food to counterproductive pests.

In contrast to these practices, genetically modified corn is intended to be planted season after season with no variation in an agricultural method called monocropping. The underpinning idea is similar to labor specialization, yet fails to take into account the long-term relationship which agricultural communities have maintained with their surroundings. In place of dispersion and fallowing practices, industrialized farms utilize chemical pesticides and fertilizers which boast extranormal returns immediately. The apparent economic advantages of these industrialized farming methods make them attractive to both agricultural communities and exploitative international interests alike, yet a more global view of the issue reveals the harsh disadvantages plainly. The relentlessness of monocropping and chemical fertilizers depletes the soil, rendering once-fertile soil barren and the use of pesticides is widely criticized for its potentially detrimental health effects (Benson, Fischer 8).

Another very important dynamic to highlight is that, in pursuit of the same special interests which brought westernized agricultural practices to Mesoamerica, political unrest, forced migration, and ethnic cleansing have led to the decimation of tradition. The introduction of external ambition into these regions cannot be seen as anything but incompatible with the inwardly focused traditions of the many Maya peoples whose entire way of life was once integrated around the natural cycles of life, astronomy, and notably agriculture.