@article{Suryanarayanan_Beilin_2020, title={Milpa-Melipona-Maya: Mayan Interspecies Alliances Facing Agribiotechnology in Yucatan}, volume={19}, url={https://acme-journal.org/index.php/acme/article/view/1746}, abstractNote={<p>This paper examines an environmental conflict between Mayan communities and governmental authorities in Mexico’s Yucatan region. Mayan beekeepers attributed severe economic losses in honey production to the expansion of genetically engineered (GE) soy plantations. Beekeeping of <em>Apis mellifera </em>or “European” honey bees for the purposes of honey export is a key source of livelihood for Mayan communities. Mayan beekeepers mobilized to bring about a moratorium on GE-soy planting, but GE-seed corporations and farmers persuaded the government to lift the moratorium. We show that there is much more to the Mayan beekeepers’ resistance than their livelihood stakes in “European” bees. Focusing on historically shaped relationships between Mayan communities, <em>milpa</em> crops and indigenous <em>Melipona </em>bees, we develop the idea of <em>interspecies alliance</em> to explain the resistance of Mayan communities to the spread of GE-soy. Through ethnographically oriented fieldwork and archival research, our study sheds light on conjoined <em>milpa-Melipona</em>-Maya worlds struggling together to resist and survive in the face of interpenetrating climates of globalized capital and localized socio-ecological degradation. We also examine how the interspecies assemblage of <em>milpa-Melipona</em>-Maya has been transformed in the process through alliances with international foundations, religious groups, scientists, activists and alternative technologies.</p>}, number={2}, journal={ACME: An International Journal for Critical Geographies}, author={Suryanarayanan, Sainath and Beilin, Katarzyna}, year={2020}, month={Sep.}, pages={469–500} }