Something that I experienced on our trip and was able to learn about was indigenous agriculture and agroecology. In a world that is rapidly changing because of human impact, it is extremely important to study what is making our world changing so fast. One of the biggest forces on climate change is large-scale, monoculture farming for numerous reasons. Forests are being cut down and burned in order to make land for livestock or crops and this depletes the soils, weakens biodiversity, and releases large amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. We need to make a major change to our agriculture methods and habits immediately if we want to try and slow the rate of climate change. We know that smaller, local farms with a variety of crops is much better for the planet and we need to be implementing these everywhere. Many indigenous communities practice subsistence farming and we could learn a lot from them. Indigenous communities all over the world are being affected by the negative impacts of climate change even though they are not the ones causing it. This is a huge problem that does not get enough attention. When integrated into our education, Indigenous agricultural knowledge (IAK) can contribute to agriculture and social change as well as combat climate change (Bebbington, 1991). My goal for this paper is to share some agroecology methods from indigenous people and how our country and other countries can learn from them to protect the planet.
My methods for this paper include my observations from Lomerío and existing literature about the Chiquitanos and indigenous agriculture. I am intentionally bringing up my observations from Lomerío and not Urubicha because sadly there is little to no subsistence farming in Urubicha. As they and other Guarayo communities have become larger, they are beginning to rely on packaged processed foods because they are cheap and easy to make. In Lomerío there were chickens, cows, and pigs roaming around everywhere. They are a great example meat consumption without needing to cut down a bunch of trees and use a huge processing facility to kill the animals to get the meat. Granted, it is a much smaller scale that what we are used to in the States, but it goes to show how smaller communities throughout the world could do local farming instead of buying there meat from a superstore and help fight climate change. The Chiquitanos from Lomerío also grew a lot of orange trees which provided fruit for members all throughout the community. I was also able to see a few smaller farms where families would grow vegetables to provide for their family.
Indigenous communities all over the world are practicing agroecological farming. So what exactly is agroecology? It is the study of ecology applied to farming where there is a focus on biodiversity, social justice, productivity, and food sovereignty, according to Altieri, Funes-Monzote, and Petersen (2012). There are six main features of an agroecosystem which includes: high biodiversity, intelligent conservation and management, diverse systems contributing to food sovereignty, climate change resilience, traditional knowledge systems, and cultural values (Altieri, et. al, 2012). These features align with the agroecological practices seen in most “peasant agriculture”. This works best on smaller scales, because as soon as it reaches large scale, machines are needed and chemicals are used. Small scale farms are proven to be much more productive when considering total input and output (Altieri, et. al, 2012). In Lomerío and other indigenous communities, families are often times farming just to provide for their family so it is easy to keep it small scale, which makes it a very minimal impact system (Lorencés, 2019).
It might be hard to imagine us following similar practices as the indigenous people since we live such different lives, but obviously what they are doing works if they are not harming the environment in such a way that we are. Kimmerer (2002) does a great job of explaining why traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) should be integrated into our biological education. To give some background, TEK includes a wide variety of knowledge including resource assessment and monitoring, successional dynamics, climate and resource patterns, species interactions, sustainable harvesting, and much more (Kimmerer, 2002). IUCN claims that our resource management, conservation education, environmental assessment and other areas of environmental concern can learn a lot from TEK. In addition, the UN now says that TEK needs to be recognized, protected, and utilized to fight climate change (Kimmerer, 2002). I find it interesting and unfortunate that we did not care to protect or respect their rights until we realized that they have valuable knowledge that we could benefit from. But, nonetheless, integrating TEK into today’s biological education will add multicultural perspectives that are often left out of scientific ecological knowledge and that is a step forward (Kimmerer 2002).
For many environmentalists and environmental justice activists, this is not new news or information. There is a lot of literature about how large-scale monocrop agriculture is killing the planet and how small-scale, biodiverse farms are a much better way to produce food. But what is often missing from literature is the perspective from the small-scale farmers themselves. It is very simple-minded to assume that all indigenous and small-scale farmers can have a biodiverse, sustainable farm and make a good living off it by just selling locally or feeding their family. Rachel Soper (2016) wrote an amazing paper about indigenous farmers’ perspectives from the Andes and how they still need to sell to export markets, not just local markets. This is something that environmentalists have to understand and continue to learn and study. We should not be the ones making the decisions for these indigenous farmers. Their perspectives, opinions, and feelings need to be shared and then we can collaborate with them to figure out what is the best way to feed people on the planet in the most sustainable way.
Something else American communities should incorporate from indigenous communities are “mingas”. This is something we got to experience in Lomerío and Urubicha and I have also read about it in existing literature. A minga typically happens once or twice a week and the whole community spends the day or several hours working together to complete a shared goal (Coq-Huelva, Torres-Navarrete, and Bueno-Suaréz, 2018). This could be picking up trash, farming, constructing new facilities, or numerous other activities. It is a fun and happy environment because they do not have to worry about their typical work or any other problems because they just get to focus on the team goal and spending time with their friends, family, and neighbors. In Lomerío we spent a few hours on a Saturday morning picking up fallen seed pods in the center of the town and removing invasive species in the lagoon. In Urubicha we picked up trash in two common spaces. These were fun community events that I would love to see become more common in the US. Imagine if communities spent a few hours each week picking up trash or working at a local farm. Relationships would be strengthened and a lot of goals could be accomplished.
It is important to keep in mind that indigenous people need to be respected regardless of the fact that they have extremely valuable knowledge that we could benefit from. But hopefully by sharing Indigenous Agricultural Knowledge (IAK) and Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK), Indigenous people all over the world will gain more respect and protection. To review, indigenous people have been practicing agroecological farming which has high biodiversity, intelligent conservation systems, contributions to food security and sovereignty, resilience to climate change, and cultural values. The United States and many other countries should be implementing TEK and IAK into their current biological and agricultural education because those systems of farming have a much lower impact on the environment than our current agricultural systems. As our world is rapidly changing, species are going extinct, coral reefs are dying, and “natural” disasters are becoming increasingly more common, this is something we need to change immediately. I am very thankful for my time in Bolivia in the indigenous communities because I was able to see a different part of the world that I had never experienced before. I was able to learn about different ways of living as a family and as a community. The knowledge I gained and the experiences I had is something that I will never forget. It has altered my perspective on our world, my personal studies, and my own goals in life. I will continue to share this information as should everyone else who has learned and experienced indigenous agricultural knowledge (IAK) and traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) throughout the world.
References
Altieri, Miguel A., Fernando R. Funes-Monzote, and Paulo Petersen. 2012. “Agroecology Efficient Agricultural Systems for Smallholder Farmers: Contributions to Food Sovereignty.” Institut Nacional de la Recherche Agronomique32:1-13.
Bebbington, Anthony. 1991. “Indigenous Agricultural Knowledge Systems, Human Interests, and Critical Analysis: Reflections on Farmer Organization in Ecuador.” AgricultureandHumanValues8(1-2):14-24.
Coq-Huelva, Daniel, Bolier Torres-Navarrete, and Carlos Bueno-Suárez. 2018. “Indigenous Worldviews and Western Conventions: Sumak Kawsayand Cocoa Production in Ecuadorian Amazonia.” Agriculture and Human Values : Journal of Agriculture, Food, and Human Values Society 35(1):163-79.
Kimmerer, Robin W. 2002. “Weaving Traditional Ecological Knowledge into Biological Education: A Call to Action.” Bioscience 52(5):432-438.
Lorencés, Maria P. 2019. “Whose Autonomy? An Analysis of the Different Meanings of Autonomy in Bolivia, and Their Impact on the Autonomy Regime. Department of International Studies- University of Oregon 1-130.
Soper, Rachel. 2016. “Local is Not Fair: Indigenous Peasant Farmer Preference for Export Markets.” Agriculture and Human Values : Journal of Agriculture, Food, and Human Values Society 33(3):537-48.
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