Affectionately called “Professor” by his neighbors, Josefino Martinez is a well-respected indigenous farmer and community organizer from the remote town of Chicahuaxtla, in the Mexican state of Oaxaca. The land he cultivates is etched into the mountainside, with a slope so severe that plowing with tractors or animals is impossible. Yet his storage room was full of maize, beans, dried chili, squash seeds, and fresh fruit that he’d grown right here.
When asked how this was possible, Martinez explained that he simply farmed in the manner of his ancestors, the indigenous Triqui people.
According to a detailed report by the World Resources Institute (WRI), the first thing to know about the impending food crisis is that the human population is expected to reach 9.6 billion by 2050. That’s a 37% increase from 2012, when it reached 7 billion.
But agriculture already accounts for a nearly a quarter of greenhouse gas emissions and 70 percent of freshwater use globally. So if we simply increased the scale of what we’re doing now, the ecological effects would be catastrophic.
The report goes on to describe a “menu of solutions”. Following are three items that Mexico’s Indigenous farmers are already doing ~ plus one more that isn’t on WRI’s list but probably should be.
1. Farm like a forest
Not accounting for land covered by water, desert, or ice, about half of the planet is dedicated to pasture and croplands, according to WRI’s study. And the continued expansion of agricultural land is driving biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation.
Oswaldo Flores, a Zapotec indigenous man from the village of Yaviche, explained how his community uses intercropping and agroforestry to grow more food without expanding into new lands.
The farm is a cafetal, a shady, multistory system with tall, purple-podded guajinicuiles and fruit trees forming the upper layer, coffee trees at the intermediate layer, and smaller food plants and vines (chiles, chives, chayotes) near the ground. The trees protect the plants below from high winds and cold temperatures, and their fallen leaves provide a natural compost that inhibits weed growth, adds fertility, and retains soil humidity. At the edge of Flores’ cafetal, the vegetation transitions to another complex and even more ancient intercropping system. The milpa is a Mesoamerican technology that integrates maize, beans, squash and other complementary food crops. While estimates of its age differ, it is at least 3,000 years old.
2. Eat low on the food chain
Getting our protein from animal products is highly inefficient. Poultry is the most efficient conventional source of meat, and still only converts 11% of its feed energy into human food. Beef cows convert only 1% and are major contributors of greenhouse gases. Shifting toward plant and insect-based protein sources is part of the sustainable food solution.
“You have never tried chicatanas?” challenged Brisa Ochoa, as she served our family a salsa made of mashed ants in her hometown of Ayoquezco. During the first spring rains, the chicatana ant leaves its nest, only to be captured by eager residents who prize its sweet and tangy flavor. Mexico has 300 to 550 species of edible insects, more than any other country in the world, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation. Among the most popular in Oaxaca are grasshoppers known as chapulines, served roasted and flavored with lime and chili, and maguey worms, served ground up and incorporated into a spicy salt. Insect protein takes some getting used to, but it’s healthier and more environmentally sustainable than livestock, boasting a feed conversion ratio of more than 50%.
3. Restore health to damaged land
Jesús León Santos, sustainable agriculture coordinator at indigenous farming organization in the Mixteca CEDICAM, is working to revive and enhance indigenous farming wisdom in order to restore the health of the soil and the productivity of the land.
The first step was to build trenches, stone walls, and terraces to stop the erosion of the remaining soils and to slow water runoff so aquifers can recharge. These barriers were stabilised with tenacious local vegetation, such as the sweet-smelling vetiver grass, which withstands drought, flooding, and mudslides. Once stabilized, the barren hillsides were reforested with native tree species.
The CEDICAM community saves its own native crop seed, using an in-the-field selection process that has persisted regionally since the pre-Columbian era. They preserve and exchange the best seeds of maize, beans, squash, chile, tomatillo, chayote, squash, sunflower, and prickly pear, as well as local specialties like cempoalxochitl, quintoniles, and huauzontle.
León Santos says he has seen yields increase fourfold after incorporating these ancient and modern sustainable growing techniques.
4. Cultivate reverence for the planet
One essential element missing from WRI’s otherwise thorough “menu of solutions” was the ethical perspective known as convivencia, or “living together” with both our human and natural communities. The ethos is best summarized by Kiado Cruz, a Zapotec farmer from the Oaxacan town of Yagavila:
“The ground beneath our feet is our Mother Nature, who has carried us and sustains us. As we work her, we do not profane her, rather we carry out our task as farmers in the context of the sacred. It is corn through which Mother Nature nourishes us. It is flesh of our flesh, because we are people of corn. So we have to collect it in a manner that shows the respect we owe both our soil and our brother corn.”
Re~Post: Four ways Mexico’s Indigenous farmers are practicing the agriculture of the future | Yes! magazine
Weblinks: World Resources Report 2013-2015: Creating a sustainable food future
Not long ago, I was monitoring information coming out of Canberra in relation to financial planning. Today, it is obvious even to me that:
1. Rotational cropping;
2. Allowing leaf litter to act as a compost; and
3. Designing one’s land to harvest rainwater
are generally healthy actions. And who would not want to manage their soils in a sustainable manner?
Tom Livanos.
tom.369@hotmail.com