Maya Forest Gardeners: Build Food Sovereignty

Maya Forest Gardeners: Build Food Sovereignty 

“We grew our food. We always had food to eat when times got difficult in Belize.”

– Estella, a Maya forest gardener

Over time, the Maya people have left their fields for jobs in a capitalist economy that has the nature to exploit labor and income. Dependency on a capitalist system manipulates income since people are at the mercy of an unstable market as COVID-19 has displayed.  The Maya detached from their land and the reciprocal relationship they had with the planet for unstable forms of income.

Maya forest gardeners enhance the health and quality of life in their communities. They increase local access to healthy, nutritious food options that build strong community food security and sovereignty.

Milpa fields and home gardens can be a vital source of nutrition, medicine, and food security in times of food scarcity or other unstable economic troubles. For example, the COVID-19 pandemic caused supply chain interruptions and lockdowns preventing people from securing food. Maya forest gardeners remained unaffected as their milpa fields provided a steady food supply.

Maya farming’s emphasis on polyculture acts as a safeguard against low yields and market demand changes. If one crop fails, another one can substitute. The same principle applies when factors like a surplus cause a sudden drop in one crop’s market value.

Triple Moons

So in my dream last night I was in college again which is quite typical of my dreams but also Pluto and Charon had been moved so that they orbited Earth and at one point I was just randomly floating in space and looking at Charon.  Then I was back on Earth in the giant imaginary college building that was also a mall.  None of this seemed at all odd to me in the dream.