Charles Bensinger

Incredibly, on Dec. 3, 2011 nearly 200 people braved treacherously icy roads and blizzard conditions to view a provocative new documentary entitled Thrive. What was it about this video that motivated so many men and women to drive from Santa Fe on a cold, stormy night to Eldorado’s La Tienda Performance Space? Perhaps it was the question that the producer asks as the documentary opens: “If humans are such a creative, ingenious species, why are millions of people relegated to desperate lives of unrelenting suffering and hardship?”

The documentary proceeds to explain how our financial, economic and political systems have been intentionally manipulated to concentrate money, power and control in the hands of a few, thus condemning the many to a life of ruthless competition for ever-diminishing economic, social and physical resources. The consequences, if unabated, can only result in individuals succumbing to a state of chronic personal despair. Fortunately, the documentary shows us that options do exist to alter this seemingly inevitable outcome. However, it notes that actualizing these options will require a profoundly courageous and creative effort by millions of determined men and women.

Thrive correctly notes that energy is one of the most important requirements for a prosperous life. Without access to affordable energy, one’s life options are limited. Thus the production and distribution of energy is the largest, most capital-intensive industry on the planet. But what if people could permanently sever their dependence on Big Power? How might a massive decoupling from the vast global empire of power plants, coal mines, oil and gas wells, refineries and public utilities change things? And what if we did the same with Big Banks, Big Pharma, Big Agriculture and maybe even Big Media and Big Military. Ambitious thinking? Unrealistic pipe dreams? Maybe, but maybe not. We’re told anything can begin to happen in 2012. And when forced by extraordinary circumstances, humans can accomplish seemingly impossible things.

So I asked myself, what could I do to help spark a radical social/economic makeover?

In my vision of the possible, I imagined I received a phone call from an anonymous person who describes himself as having just received a $32 million bonus from his Wall Street Bank. He informs me that he already has a $6 million yacht in the Caribbean, a 10,000 –sq.-ft. house in the Hamptons, a private plane at his disposal and a condo in Aspen. “I really don’t know how to spend another $32 million,” he bemoans. He goes on to explain that he had heard about a book I had written some years ago, entitled Designing the New World, where I proposed a variety of global, regional and individual recipes for fundamental change.

To my surprise, he offered to split the bonus with me. He would keep $16 million to spend on his next years’ international travels and send me $16 million to “do something interesting with.” By the end of the conversation I detected a hint of guilt in his voice and an unexpressed desire for some kind of soulful redemption.

I, of course, was stunned at my sudden good fortune, but exhilarated by the potential that $16 million in cash with no strings attached could hold. So how would I spend the $16 million? Well, I decided to keep $500,000 to fund my operations for the next 10 years. I would distribute the other $500,000 to unemployed friends and local charities like the Santa Fe Community Foundation and to various homeless shelters and food banks.

My Plan

Thrive makes it painfully clear that the core cause of our present economic and political meltdown is due to gross financial manipulation by a small cadre of very wealthy individuals possessing a very specific agenda not in the best interests of the 99% of the world’s inhabitants. So first off, I would establish a kind of Community Economic Empowerment Bank or CEEB. I’d put the remaining $15 million into it. But this is not your ordinary bank. There would be no depositors. The CEEB is designed not to take money from the community but to distribute money to the community through prudent loans and grants.

Here’s how it would work: The CEEB publishes a Request for Proposal, which would solicit potential entrepreneurs interested in and capable of developing businesses to serve certain basic community needs. If a proposal is accepted as economically sound, the recipient receives shares in the bank. Part of the interest paid on the low-interest loans (4%-6%) is deposited in the bank’s general loan fund and part of the interest is paid out to the bank’s shareholders (other loan recipients) as dividends. A loan recipient, though, must have repaid 40% of their loan in order to qualify for dividends. When the parties receiving the loans have an incentive to repay loans in a timely fashion, they will help ensure the long-term financial health of the bank. As the bank flows dollars into the community those dollars have a multiplier effect, producing four times as much revenue as it circulates throughout the community. And amazing things become possible when people can reclaim control of their lives.

Taking control of Energy

Thrive introduces us to a physical form of energy, known about for thousands of years. During the past 120 years, clever inventors and outside-the-box scientists have tapped into this energy and developed various working power-generation models. This inexhaustible and omnipresent source of energy, sometimes referred to as Zero Point or “New Energy,” has the capability to cleanly power individual homes, businesses and vehicles without needing to connect to any utility companies. Obviously, the commercial availability of such systems would seriously shift the social/economic and political structures of global civilization on a seismic scale. Not surprisingly, the US Patent Office summarily classifies most of these devices, and/or their inventors are forcibly “discouraged” from commercializing such systems. But the urgency of our present environmental circumstances requires that we bring these devices into common use as soon as possible. Thus I would have the Community Bank earmark $2 million in funding to help develop promising New Energy technologies and encourage the developers to manufacture them in NM. In the meantime, though, there are things we can do to increase our local energy self-reliance.

Let’s make our own electric vehicles and run them on solar power

• Start a business to convert good used cars and trucks to electric drives.
• Start a business to finance electric charging stations in town—at malls, government buildings and schools for drivers to charge their vehicles during daytime.
• Start a business to finance community-wide low-interest loans for installation of solar electric panels on homes for home and vehicle powering. Electric car owners can now say adios to Shell and Chevron. And the payback period for solar PV is greatly accelerated when solar energy displaces liquid fuels for transportation purposes.

The CEED would designate $1.5 million to help jumpstart these businesses.

Lets turn our waste organic material into biogas

Start a company that would collect the 50% of our food that is regularly wasted and discarded by homes, restaurants and supermarkets and turn that waste food into biogas, also known as methane or natural gas. To do this we use an ancient and simple process known as anerobic digestion. Let the bugs do the work of breaking down organic matter into a combustible gas. They will do this anyway in the wild (the landfill), except then the methane is released into the atmosphere. Methane gas (CH4) is way worse than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas. In fact it’s 20 times more destructive than CO2. By capturing the methane in closed containers and then combusting it in a vehicle, a generator or a heater, we get work out of it. The byproduct of methane combustion is CO2, which when released is much less destructive than allowing the methane to enter the atmosphere on its own. Animal manures also make great biogas. Home-made or community-made biogas can replace the need for natural gas, which then reduces the need for oil and gas companies to employ the terribly destructive extractive process of fracking.

The CEEB would designate $500,000 to help get this business going.

Let’s turn our discarded plastics into fuel

Start a company that would take the plastics we now send to the landfill (the #3, 4, 5, 6 and 7s) and convert them back into the hydrocarbon fuels from which they were originally made. Think tofu tubs, clamshells, yogurt containers, plastic bags, shrink wrap, plastic packaging, and thin plastic bags used to take vegetables home—transformed back into low-sulfur diesel fuel, gasoline and kerosene. Nationally, only 7% of our plastic gets recycled. Thirty million tons of plastic is produced each year, which could be converted into 750 million gallons of fuel. The gasification process is very efficient. It can recover 90% of the hydrocarbons used to make the original fuel.

Several manufacturers now offer low-emission gasification systems that use heat to cleanly process the solid hydrocarbons in the plastic into liquid re-usable hydrocarbons. Eight pounds of plastic can be converted into one gallon of combustible fuel using about 20 cents worth of electricity.

The CEEB would designate $2M to help get this business going.

Let’s turn our waste vegetable oil into clean diesel fuel

Start a company that would take the used vegetable oil that is routinely discarded by restaurants and turn it into clean biodiesel fuel. Currently, restaurants are required to properly dispose of their used grease, which is commonly picked up by collection companies and used in the manufacture of paints, cosmetics, candles and other commodity products. But this oil can be used more appropriately to make a superior diesel fuel product. Two companies in NM are currently doing this already on a very small scale. But with new automated technology, we could be supplying our school buses and fleets with local fuel made from local feedstocks (waste vegetable oil), keeping fuel dollars in NM while providing much healthier transportation for our school-age children. Studies have shown that diesel school buses are a major contributor to childhood asthma.

The CEEB would designate $1.5M to help get this business off the ground.

Let’s produce healthier food locally

Start a number of local algae production businesses. Start with spirulina farms. Spirulina is one of nature’s most amazing miracle foods. According to NASA, two pounds of spirulina provides the same benefits as 2,000 pounds of vegetables and fruits. Spirulina farming requires one-third the amount of water needed to grow soybeans and only 1/50th of the water needed for beef production. Spirulina is 60% protein and contains 12 times as much protein as beef by weight. Spirulina protein needs 20 times less land than soybeans and 200 times less land than is required for beef production. Spirulina is a low-fat, low-calorie, cholesterol-free source of protein containing all the essential amino acids. It helps combat problems like diabetes, anemia and atmospheric pollution. Spirulina can help in the struggle with global warming as it fixes carbon and produces oxygen.

Spirulina needs a warm place to grow, so local spirulina greenhouse-type farms would need lots of heat, which could be produced inexpensively using solar thermal systems, biogas units and new energy systems.

Other species of algae provide powerful antioxidants and detoxification agents that can protect us from all kinds of illnesses and diseases. Currently, many algae nutraceutical products are imported from Asia, but algae could be cultivated successfully in the Southwest, given optimized growing and environmental control systems. Students and instructors at Santa Fe Community College are currently building and testing such systems.

Since our current, commercial food system is a major source of illness and disease in this country rather than a solution to illness and disease, we need to create a healthier food production and supply system.

The CEED would designate $3M for development of local high-nutrition food programs.

Let’s map our local resources

We need to better utilize the excess resources we currently “waste” in our community. Every day we send way too much valuable stuff to our landfills or otherwise “dispose” of material that could be put to much better use. For example, the Chinese are buying up used tires and plastic waste and shipping these materials back to China to be incinerated for power production or converted into new products. We should be processing these materials into heat, fuel or electric power to be used locally. Besides reducing our need for new fossil fuels, we’d be creating new green businesses and jobs for New Mexicans.

The first step in making better use of our local resources is knowing what we’ve got and how much of it is available for economically practical re-use. We need to take inventory of materials used in our local area, map where everything is and how it moves through our community. Then we need to determine whether it ends up in the landfill or how it is diverted. Likely we’ll want to create new community-wide diversion strategies which will, of course, mean creating new businesses that will need to hire managers, truck drivers and processors. And this means more jobs, job, jobs. And a lowering of greenhouse gases. And greater local self-sufficiency. A local nonprofit, WAV-Links, already has a good plan for taking on a challenge such as this.

The CEED would designate $500,000 to get this project going.

Let’s create some affordable holistic healing retreat centers

Thrive also takes on Big Pharma and notes that many successful alternative treatment modalities exist for some of our nastiest diseases such as cancer. But, as with the energy industry, there is so much money at stake that the lower-cost alternatives are aggressively discouraged. History has amply demonstrated that successful non-mainstream practitioners often have been hounded out of the country or forced to close their doors. Let’s examine how we could use our local healing environment to provide affordable holistic healing retreats in our mountains or deserts that utilize the panoply of alternative medicine modalities.

The CEED would designate $3 million to get this project started.

So there went $12 million. I’ll keep the remaining $4 million in the bank for future projects. Actually it’s a paltry, minimum sum to seed such a variety of projects. Heck, a new hotel-resort complex would suck up $20 million to $30 million in a heartbeat. But I suspect that the entrepreneurs that would come forward could find ways to leverage the CEEB money into greater financial support. And that’s how it should be. Other funding sources should help carry the load and share the risk to ensure the projects are successful.

There are many responses that we can craft to deal with our urgent national and global problems. I feel that, at a minimum, we need to fire people’s imagination to muster the will and sustainable commitment it will require to turn the ship around before it heads over the great waterfall whose roar we can hear in the distance. You see, I really believe our imagination is our greatest resource. When we marry imagination with sensible and sustainable action, anything becomes possible.

Happy New Year!

Charles Bensinger is Alternative Fuels Program Director at SFCC. Charles is also director of Renewable Energy Partners of New Mexico, which developed and manages the biofuels dispensers inside the Giant Conoco and Phillips 66 retail stations on Cerrillos Road. Email: newworld@cybermesa.com, 505.466.4259

Sidebar:

To learn more about the technologies described in this article, consider enrolling in the SFCC Alternative Fuels program. Courses ALTF-111 followed by ALTF-121 examine the history of various fuels and teach students how to make biogas, biodiesel, ethanol and how to successfully cultivate and process algae. Register now for classes that begin Jan. 23. ALTF-111 is scheduled for Monday and Wednesday afternoons from 1:30 to 4 pm. 505.428.1270, www.sfcc.edu

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Welcome to the Mythical Year… 2012

With all the massive hype aside, the buildup to this particular New Year, with all the uncertainty, loss of faith in our locked-down political system, economic woes, and the sobering, unedited news on the state of our climate, persons could get caught up in these proposed, “end of times.” From the infamous ramblings of the Mayan Calendar to the pessimistic premonitions of Nostradamus, the landscape has been riddled with dire perspectives that heighten the already unsettling sensations of change. It is often change itself that causes many to dip into a feeling of insecurity, and when intensified by the unknowingness of what will replace the established “givens” that have begun to unravel, the masses tend to cling to the familiar, proven approach, even when it probably wasn’t sustainable in the first place. Oddly, though this perspective is based on what previously appeared as a mesmerized populace, run by fear and easily manipulated, to a citizenry who, when actually asked, appears less than convinced that the status quo is maintainable, or even relevant in this time of accelerated change.

It is the establishment, the corporate machine that projects so much of what we’re supposed to think and what it is that we’re supposed to agree with. A recent study shows a remarkable 70% of the population desires a renewable energy future, yet we are shown to be insatiable consumers of fossil energy, with no lull in our appetite any time soon. It’s no coincidence that after decades of minimal choices for transportation, with the auto makers and big oil making sure alternatives would have a very slippery slope to climb, progress has been slow. Even the beloved General Motors EV-1 was rounded up en masse and sent to the crusher while emotional owners protested to no avail. The powers that be could not ingest the visual of a clean, cheap and renewable future that was potentially less profitable, coupled with the prospects of competition lining up from every direction. Remarkably, with all the countless technological advances over the decades, fuel economy in vehicles has made very small gains over the past 30 years. The banking system has shown to be controlled by an elite group of the country’s richest families, the Federal Reserve being a private enterprise run by the very banking interests it appears to control. Corporate plutocracy is now the name of the game in our government.

The people, however, have begun to find their voice. Social media has provided a viable alternative to the slanted corporate perspective, and has made for a free exchange of information available to most everyone. So, while we luxuriate in this unexpected windfall of freedom, simultaneously, the U.S. Senate is poised to vote on a bill, the “Protect IP Act,” which is designed to end the free expression of the Internet as we currently know it. Corporations such as Comcast and Pfizer have spent millions of dollars lobbying for this censorship legislation. In this latest attempt at usurping our liberties, these big players have teamed with another free spending contributor, the United States Chamber of Commerce. It’s a fact that they are the most powerful lobby in Washington D.C. when it comes to promoting and defending corporate interests.

If it passes, the “Protect IP Act” would give corporate copyright holders the authority to demand that the government shut down any website without a court order. All they would need is to “allege” that the website contains copyrighted material. So, instead of just listening to me share this latest tale of corporate tyranny, take action, as many millions of citizens have begun to do. Tell your senators to protect our open and free Internet, to oppose the “Protect IP Act.” While you’re at it, you can sign the petition at the link below.

http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/internet_censorship/?r_by=31902-3011933-v1M9eWx&rc=confemail

Now raging in the U.S. Senate is a debate on whether or not American citizens can face indefinite detention by the military if merely suspected of a crime against the state. No due process, no formal charges, just a full on assault on the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution in the name of national security. This continuous stripping away of our civil liberties reveals the government’s agenda of controlling the populace over any mission to uphold the basic protections upon which the republic was founded. U.S. Representative Mark Udall from Colorado is leading the charge, along with Dianne Feinstein in the Senate, to do away with this misaligned stipulation in the current Defense Authorization Bill. Sign on in support at the link below.

http://www.markudall.com/detaineepetition

Many people have come to find that participation in our political process, exercising our capacity to express our individual and collective will, feels empowering. It’s invigorating to get off the couch, turn off the latest mesmerizing slant on reality and unite with others in the common purpose of protecting our freedoms and ensuring a sustainable and renewable future for our children. It is also helpful to remember to focus on what’s good and beautiful in our lives and spend some quality moments visualizing the future we wish to live together.

So, you might be asking by now what all this has to do with the iconic year, 2012? Well, everything. Hollywood and others have cashed in on the apocalyptic theme, religions and cults have thrived off the fear generated by the correlation of predictions, and the vivid, living contrast of these uncertain and changing times has most everyone’s attention. This is a great year for introspection, healing, forgiveness, action, and the personal and collective participation in our cultural transformation.

The most typical, and digestible, interpretation of the Mayan prophecy translates as…”the end of the world as we know it.” And, despite our human tendency to cling to the familiar, it’s important to recognize that these are remarkable times, and to open up to the limitless possibilities that the “end of times” evokes. We have the potential to create far grander realities then we’ve previously known. As our antiquated systems continue in decline, the resolve of citizens to live actively, cooperatively, creatively and in harmony with the planet will lead ultimately to the lasting solutions we seek. We’ll at some point look in the rearview mirror and see the year 2012 as a pivotal time in the evolution of the human experience. At least that’s my prophecy.

Faren Dancer is an award-winning designer, builder, educator and activist. His UNICOPIA GREEN RADIO show is each Saturday at 4 pm on KTRC (1260 AM). All the archived shows are available at www.unicopia.org. Email: Faren@unicopia.org

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Andrez Juarez

Tres Hermanas Co-op was started as a response to the state of our community of Chimayo, New Mexico. For too long Chimayo has been at the top of every bad list and the bottom of every good list. My family saw our community being ravaged by drugs and domestic violence. Politically, the people have never really had a leader that spoke for them or listened to their concerns. Economically, Chimayo has never had any industry to help lift it out of poverty. It is for this reason that, in 2011 several women got together and formed Tres Hermanas Co-op.

Our first order of business was to gain some knowledge about our community, so we have developed a survey and conducted outreach. What we found was that our community was tired of being disadvantaged socially, economically and politically. When you’re poor, no one cares about you. Tres Hermanas Co-op wanted to change that perception and create a positive view of our community. The funny thing about acting locally is that it has an effect globally. For example, an earthquake in Japan brings the global production line of cell phones, computers and cars to a standstill. Or a rebellion in a country halfway around the world raises our gas prices.

Tres Hermanas Co-op decided to try something new: listen to the community and let it tell us what it needed. You would be amazed at some of the things we heard. First, our community was tired of being underemployed and undereducated. Our children do not have access to the learning tools that wealthier communities like Los Alamos have. Have you been in our schools lately? They are like pre-prison camps. There are metal detectors and pat-downs, and if they don’t like you then they just suspend you. Please tell me how someone is supposed to get a quality education in an environment like that. If you don’t get a good education then you are doomed to a life of menial and sub-standard jobs.

In response to this, Tres Hermanas Co-op has developed a GED program with the state that will allow people to get their diplomas and improve their lives. In addition, the co-op is developing a community kitchen. Food is the one thing that unites people across the spectrum and across cultures. The community kitchen will allow people to produce and sell food in a safe environment that is regulated by the state. We hope to replicate the model that the Taos Economic Development Corporation has used. Finally, we have a functioning greenhouse, which is a step toward the community-supported farm Tres Hermanas Co-op is seeking to create.

The second goal is to help the community establish its own political voice, so it can speak for itself. For many years, political leaders have spoken for the community without ever listening to the people of the community. As a result, the community is left out of all the important decisions that affect them. Tres Hermanas Co-op is seeking to educate the community and inform them of their rights, so that they can be actors in their own destiny. We are seeking to do this by revitalizing the old traditions that have sustained us in the past. For example, we are reactivating the ditch associations, so people can begin to use them as a forum to air their issues. Tres Hermanas Co-op is also bringing back the matanzas (traditional public butchering) as a way to bring the community together. Last year we had the first annual community Halloween, Christmas, and New Year parties. These may seem like small events, but to a child that does not have a Halloween or Christmas gift, it means the world. All of these gatherings are ways that we are able to reach our communities and hear their concerns.

Our final goal is to help them to develop a strong vibrant and healthy community. To do this we must reach out to everyone. If we want our community to be safe, then we have to fight to make it that way. Tres Hermanas Co-op seeks to do this by providing various services. From behavioral health to domestic violence, we are seeking to develop programs for our citizens, so they can access them whenever they need to. Tres Hermanas Co-op does not turn anyone away from our organization. We do not care what color you are or what your sexual orientation is. We do not pass judgment on the heroin addicts or the alcoholics. Our goal is to create a healthy community where our children can play safely and our elders do not have to live in fear.

I know that these goals sound very lofty and idealistic, but every great thing that has ever happened in history started with an idea. Ideals are very powerful motivating forces. They inspire people to journey to a strange and foreign land in search of a better life. They motivate humanity to send a man to the moon and inspire us to throw off the chains of oppression. At some point we must all decide for ourselves if we are going to take the easy road and continue to be part of the problem or if we are going to chose the road less traveled and become part of the solution. Because the real truth is that I am my brother’s and sister’s keeper. Many people search for their purpose in life when all they have to do is look to their right and left. The truth is that we all sink or swim together. No one is an island. We are all intertwined with one another. In the final analysis, my life, my family’s life and the life of my community depends on everyone else. It does not matter if I am the richest man in Chimayo. If my community suffers, then it is only a matter of time before I suffer.

Andrez Juarez is a community activist working on social, political and economic issues in the Chimayo Valley. Tres Hermanas has applied for nonprofit status. In the meantime, donations in support of the initiative are being accepted by the New Mexico Alliance. Contact Juarez at andrez.juarez@gmail.com for more information.

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The Cooperative Development Center of New Mexico

Seth Roffman

In early spring, members of the High Peaks Deep Roots Agricultural Cooperative in Truchas, New Mexico, will gather to plant organic vegetables as a team for the second season in a row.

Incorporated last year as a farmer’s cooperative, High Peaks Deep Roots consists of seven farmers and their families who hope to revitalize their community and help themselves economically. In its first year, the co-op was able to find and develop a farm site, create and implement a farm plan and join four farmers’ markets in northern New Mexico. They also were able to sell their produce at the Santa Fe Farmers’ Market.

Co-op members bought and erected a cold frame to extend the growing season; they developed and implemented a drip irrigation system, including creation of an irrigation pond; and they met regularly to build the co-op’s management capacity.

With an initial organizing year under their collective belts, co-op members are now looking forward to a rewarding and productive year in the high Truchas landscape.

“We have always been farmers,” said co-op member and president John Chávez. “But the co-op has given us a way to maximize what we grow and to actually help our families economically.” Incorporating as a co-op made great sense to the Trucheños, said Chávez, because the concept of working collaboratively to benefit each other is an ancient and living model in the village through its still-existing 10,000-acre land grant and its numerous acequias.

Many of the original Spanish and Mexican land grants were often awarded to a collective of families who petitioned the Viceroy or the government for settlement lands across northern New Mexico. This collective model of work echoes the modern co-op system.

Acequias also were—and are—cooperative economic models. Nearly 10,000 years ago, desert dwellers in what is now modern-day Yemen and Afghanistan developed communal irrigation systems that permitted them to feed themselves in a harsh and arid landscape. That communal model—imported into New Mexico by Spanish colonists—took root over centuries into a sophisticated and viable economic system in New Mexico.

High Peaks Deep Roots Farmer’s Cooperative was formed with help from the Cooperative Development Center of New Mexico, said CODECE executive director Arturo Sandoval. “We expect to form another farmer’s co-op in Truchas this year,” he said. “Our model keeps co-op membership small, so that members can have full ownership of their co-op.” Sandoval said CODECE’s model seeks to ensure that control of each co-op is completely localized. “Eventually, we expect to create many, many small co-ops, each completely owned by local Hispano families,” he said. Economies of scale will be achieved by bundling their products through CODECE’s region-wide marketing expertise, he noted.

Working with CODECE, the High Peaks Deep Roots Farmer’s Cooperative has joined with the Albuquerque-based Agri-Cultura Food Distribution Network to expand their organic produce markets. The Agri-Cultura Network is developing a statewide network of organic growers and plans to create a highly sophisticated marketing plan that emphasizes each of the state’s different growing seasons to maximize market impact and sales.

CODECE received a USDA grant late in 2011 to purchase a state-of-the-art food catering truck. CODECE will use the truck as part of its cooperative development activities with two other new Truchas ecotourism co-ops: one providing recreation and outdoor services, the other focusing on arts and culture, especially food culture.

The plan is for the two ecotourism co-ops in Truchas to provide organic meals to tourists engaged in outdoor activities on the Truchas Land Grant and in the Pecos Wilderness. Much of the food will be purchased from the High Peaks Deep Roots Farmer’s Coop during summer and fall activities.

This spirit of cooperation among the three new Truchas co-ops has become contagious, said Mark Willuhn, CODECE director of ecotourism and executive director of the Mesoamerican Ecotourism Alliance based in Managua, Nicaragua. “All three co-ops now share an office, meeting and gallery space right in the heart of the village,” Willuhn said. “All of the co-op members have pitched in to clean and repair our space and all are working closely together to help each other succeed.”

This spirit of cooperation has extended to other community-based organizations in New Mexico, Willuhn noted. He said the co-ops are actively seeking collaborations with other organizations that are focused on helping revitalize villages across New Mexico. “The key for us is partnerships,” said Willuhn. “We need other groups and organizations to help us succeed and we can also help them do well. That’s our mantra.”

Sandoval said CODECE just received its second year of funding from the USDA to continue its cooperative development efforts in Truchas and across other northern New Mexico Hispano villages. He noted that historical agricultural practices found in Truchas have actually positioned local farmers there to be ahead of the curve in efforts to join the organic food movement. For example, he said, “Farmers in Truchas have never used chemical fertilizers. Never. That has made it so much easier to get their lands organically certified by the New Mexico Commodities Commission.”

Sandoval said Truchas in particular and northern New Mexico in general, mirrors the emerging economies in the rest of the world, including Brazil, Russia, India and China.

CODECE’s senior policy and strategic development advisor Manual Montoya said, “As we begin to understand the forces that will shape the global political economy in the 21^st Century, we are also beginning to understand that the success of the planet will rely on sustainable land-based practices that leverage community identity properly.” Montoya, a native of northern New Mexico, a Rhodes Scholar and professor of global structures at UNM’s Anderson School of Management, added, “What is happening in New Mexico is no different than what is happening throughout the world right now. This is the perfect opportunity for New Mexico to become a business partner with the rest of the world in a meaningful way.”

Sandoval added, “We have the social and economic elements in place to succeed at a very high level in this new and emerging global economic situation. We just need to keep working hard.” CODECE uses a three-pronged economic development approach to revitalize rural villages. Those areas are organic farming, ecotourism and affordable housing.

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Quita Ortiz

Every fall, the New Mexico Acequia Association, holds its annual meeting, the Congreso de las Acequias. In 2011 it took place in November at the Santa Fe Community Convention Center. Approximately 150 dedicated acequieros from throughout the state gathered to share stories about history, community and ongoing struggles. In past years the Congreso focused on the movement’s work to defend and protect water and to strengthen local agriculture. In 2010 the Congreso celebrated 20 years of uniting acequia communities and defending acequia water rights. These issues remain relevant to NMAA and will continue to be a core part of the organization’s efforts; but in 2011 the annual meeting focused on new initiatives, methods and directions.

As is custom, the Congreso officially began with the Bendicíon de las Aguas, a water blessing ceremony involving acequia delegates from around New Mexico who bring water from their region for the blessing. Paula Garcia, executive director, then presented the annual report, which recapped the organization’s work over the past year. She also introduced a preview of the Art of Mayordomía, a short film based on NMAA’s Mayordomo Project, a collaborative effort aimed at addressing the decrease in the number of people willing to fill the mayordomo (irrigation ditch boss) position. The film showed some of the practical local knowledge utilized to foster an internship process in which experienced mayordomos train and are shadowed by new mayordomos. After the film, Juliet Garcia-Gonzales, who heads the Sembrando Semillas Project of Chamisal, presented a slideshow that captured her group’s activities of the past several years, including horno building, making chicos and other traditional agricultural activities carried out among youth in her community.

Executive Director Garcia also provided participants with an overview of the Escuelita de las Acequias, NMAAs new project for strengthening acequia community knowledge and applying it to current challenges facing acequias. The NMAA is shifting to a new methodology in which we engage our communities in much more deliberate ways. One of the primary goals of the Escuelita de las Acequias is to raise consciousness among acequia communities, particularly with the affirmation of local customs and values.

Another direction that the NMAA is taking involves a more active role in the agricultural revitalization of acequia communities. The intent is to strengthen our land-based way of life by encouraging landowners to build upon their existing traditional agricultural methods by fusing them with newer technology. Acequias have governed themselves for centuries and have been able to adapt to various challenges. A specific ongoing challenge is the need for improved infrastructure.

A panel presentation entitled, “Acequia Grown: USDA Programs for Acequia Farmers and Ranchers” featured panelists Marisela Trujillo of El Rincón Farm in Chimayó; Martín Durán, Luna Canyon Cattle Company in Chacon; Cliff Sanchez of the Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS); and State Senator Carlos Ciscneros. Sanchez opened the presentation with a brief introduction of the support that NRCS provides to individual landowners. Trujillo and Durán provided an overview of their experience in working with NRCS. Trujillo had improvements made on her family farm, including the lining of an old holding pond for improved water efficiency, and the construction of a hoop-house; both of which were NRCS-EQIP cost-share projects. Durán used both EQIP and capital outlay funds to make repairs to his family ranch, including the installation of new headgates, a new livestock water tank, and other infrastructure features that have improved water delivery and efficiency. These sorts of resources are not intended to wholly improve or replace the existing characteristics of our traditional farms and ranches; we want folks to implement this new technology as a way to complement their traditional methods that are already in place and have served communities well for generations. Senator Cisneros gave an overview of state funding for acequias in the coming year. It’s vital that acequias and individual landowners are aware of how they can tap into the various resources available to them.

Following the panel, Congressman Ben Ray Lujan addressed the audience and discussed his ongoing support of acequias. His address was followed by a luncheon, which provided participants with an opportunity to network and catch up with each other. Enrique Lamadrid, Chair of the Spanish Department at UNM; and Estévan Arellano, a well-respected and accomplished journalist, farmer, historian and poet, were honored for their contributions to acequia literature. Both received a Recognition of Literary Contribution plaque for the children’s book they co-authored, La Acequia de Juan del Oso and the many other literary contributions they’ve made to the acequia movement. The luncheon was wrapped up by announcing the winners of the NMAA’s Acequia Photo Contest, the submitted photos of which are featured in a 2012 calendar.

The afternoon agenda consisted of NMAA business where resolutions were presented and voted on. Delegates to the New Mexico Acequia Association represent the various regional acequia associations within the state. The NMAA is organized into two different types of regions: Type 1 regions have established regional acequia associations and thus have automatic representation on the Congreso de las Acequias. The number of delegates depends on the number of acequias in the regional association. Type 2 regions do not have organized regional acequia associations, but are recognized by the NMAA for purpose of representation and are afforded one delegate. Delegates submit and vote on resolutions that steer NMAA’s legislative priorities and strategic direction.

Executive Director Garcia began the afternoon business by presenting the “Statement of Acequia Policy Concerns Relating to the Office of the New State Engineer.” The resolution highlighted policy issues intended to build a mutually beneficial relationship between the OSE and local acequia leaders. The delegates passed a total of nine resolutions. In addition to the statement to the OSE, some of the other resolutions that were passed include the support of a coordinated a streamlined process for funding and constructing acequia projects; protection of native New Mexico chile; various Farm Bill priorities that include advocating for programs that benefit acequias; supporting the historic rights of use and access to lands under the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management; and support of the inclusion of acequias in the state’s 2012 Centennial Celebrations. For a complete list and to view a copy of the resolutions passed, please visit www.lasacequias.org/resolutions.

The New Mexico Acequia Association had a great time this year at the Congreso and would like to thank all who attended, including the dignitaries who participated in support of NMAA, including Congressman Ben Ray Lujan, Senator Carlos Cisneros, former Santa Fe County Commissioner Harry Montoya and Guadalupe County Commissioner Vince Cordova. It’s the ongoing dedication of our members and supporters that make the NMAA and its Congreso the successful acequia movement that it is. We look forward to implementing our new initiatives in the coming year, and are eager to continue building upon our past efforts.

Quita Ortiz is with the Land and Water Program of the New Mexico Acequia Association. quita@lasacequias.org, 505.699.5520, www.lasacequias.org

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Isaura Andaluz

The chilly weather on Dec. 3^rd was overcome by the energy of people marching along the streets of Albuquerque. Bundled up and sporting signs, they marched to call attention to the need to protect NM’s heritage chile from genetic engineering. The event was organized by Occupy Albuquerque, Save NM Seeds and others opposed to what they see as an international conglomerate’s efforts to own and control our world’s food supply. The march started at the downtown Alvarado Transportation Center, traveled down Central, around Civic Plaza, and ended at Roosevelt Park. The marchers were cheered on by a stream of cars, their drivers honking in support and shouting out words of encouragement.

With the upcoming centennial celebration of NM’s statehood, one has to consider an ancient culture moving into the modern day with the ominous threat of extinction to our beloved chile. As incredible as it seems, this is the latest of many threats to the culture and people – whether Anglo, Native American or Hispanic – of our great state.

Background

Genetic engineering (GE) has been heralded as the panacea for the challenges the world’s commercial agricultural enterprises must contend with. Scientists have worked to change the basic structures of what nature (some may say God) created for the people of this planet. In the process they took ownership of this creation, obtaining patents that prohibited others from using or growing the new crops without paying the patent holders. As Orwellian as it sounds, the true threat comes not only from the agribusiness crops aimed at supplanting the foods of the world, but also from the subtleties of laws that allow corporations to seek punitive government action when their laboratory-grown components enter an unsuspecting farmer’s fields. No matter if the wind, birds or bees spread their pollen; these Wall Street corporations are now able to claim patent infringement.

The Issues

Over 80% of the food products we eat now contain genetically engineered (GE) components. 88% of corn and 94% of soybeans are genetically engineered, as is 90% of cotton. All of these crops have been bred to be resistant to glyphosate, commonly known as Round-Up. When inserted into the DNA of a seed, the new plant – root, stock, leaves, pollen and seed – will contain this technology. A farmer must enter into a contract with a biotech company to plant these seeds. The farmer cannot save the seed his plants produce; he must buy seed (and the company’s pesticide) each year to continue farming. This is the GE farmer’s choice. However, it is not the choice of a neighboring non-GE farmer when the patented seed or pollen lands in his field, and he becomes the target of litigation from the patent-owning company.

So… back to New Mexico’s favorite food: Chile is a staple crop grown and consumed by many New Mexicans who save and replant their seed. These farmers may find their produce contaminated (for lack of a better word) with patented GE traits in the seeds they harvest from their crops. The result: Farmers find themselves subject to litigation and damages for patent infringement. And, worse, there will be almost certain loss of the invaluable and unique traits of the farmer’s own seed, developed through hundreds of years of breeding.

The Players

So who is the multiple-armed wizard behind the screen, and, more importantly, what is their motivation? The primary player is the New Mexico Chile Association (NMCA), formerly known as the NM Chile Task Force. In 2006 it changed its name and became a nonprofit membership organization that lobbies for government and public funds, some of which are used to genetically engineer NM chile. The NMCA works with New Mexico State University’s (NMSU) Agricultural Experimental Station and other departments.

NMCA’s president is Gene Baca, of Bueno Foods; its secretary is Lou Biad, of Rezolex, and the treasurer is Dino Cervantes, of Cervantes Enterprises. Bueno Foods is a chile processor and does not farm; Rezolex is one of two companies in the US that extract oleoresin from paprika. Rezolex farms in NM, Texas and Arizona. Cervantes Enterprises has a farming enterprise in southern NM that produces approximately 80% of all the cayenne pepper mash used in Tabasco sauces in the US.  ¹ All three companies also import chile from outside the US.²

The NMCA contends that a GE chile is necessary for the industry to survive because the North American Free Trade Agreement opened the door for imports of cheaper chile peppers from Mexico. The NMCA responded by exploring ways to market a GE chile to the public. The result was a campaign promoting GE chile as environmentally friendly agriculture. It included a GE market-friendly packaging strategy as the solution to the industry’s woes.³

Who Is Footing the Bill?

In 2008, Senator Bernadette Sanchez introduced a bill (SB 60) in the NM State Legislature that provided to NMSU $250,000 in annual appropriations for development of a mechanical harvester and genetic engineering for chile. This was the first time the public had knowledge of a GE chile. When a concerned citizen emailed Sen. Sanchez asking about this legislation, her response was: “The research is focused on harvesting and not on genetic engineering. I have been informed that the only research conducted is through cross-pollination without introduction of chemicals or un-natural organisms (February 13, 2008).” Other citizens’ questions about GE chile were met by similar responses from NMSU.

So, how is the money being spent? And why the lack of knowledge by the sponsor of the bill and a spokesperson from the institution where research is taking place? How much money has the chile industry received? How long will taxpayers continue to fund this effort? It is murky to say the least. Part of the issue is that the NMCA and NMSU determine how recurring funds get spent.

In 1992, phytophthora (a plant pathogen) became a major concern of the chile industry. This prompted NMSU to secure $250,000 of recurring research funds from the state legislature for the NMSU Agricultural Experiment Station. Funds were to conduct research on phytophthora control, development of resistant varieties, a Round-Up resistant chile and mechanical harvesting.⁴ Initial funding from these funds for GE chile was only 8% of the total. Since genetic engineering is also being used to create virus-resistant crops, it is difficult to know what percent is now going to a GE chile. Total recurring funds spent since 1993 through 2011 for this research is $4.8 million. In 2006, the NMCA lobbied for an additional $7 million in funding on behalf of the chile industry’s efforts. From 2006 to 2010, an additional estimated $3.5 million has gone specifically for development of a GE chile.

The reason the public did not know about the GE chile is because the bills have had innocuous names like NMSU Chile Industry Research, Chile Task Force, Increase Chile Industry Profitability, and Economic Sustainability of NM Chile Industry. The bills were heard in committees not normally designated to hear these type bills such as Corporations, Transportation and Education. The net result: A lack of transparency, with evidence that, outrageously, tobacco settlement funds have been used to fund a GE chile.

In times when many New Mexicans are struggling economically and worrying about how to feed their families, the idea that our limited tax dollars are going to develop a patented seed for a staple crop that will be owned by a state university and international biotech companies is beyond comprehension.⁵

People are Afraid of Science?

Dr. Stephen Hanson, an assistant professor at NMSU says, “I don’t understand where all the opposition [to genetic engineering] comes from…I think it probably comes back to people’s core beliefs; maybe they don’t understand the technology; they don’t trust it.”⁶ The people of NM are not afraid of science or technology. Many of us fully understand the consequences of GE crops crossing with native crops such as chile and corn. We also understand what NM has to lose with the introduction of the GE alfalfa, the first perennial GE crop to be deregulated. (Alfalfa is planted in all but one county.)

For the last three years, concerned citizens have worked to pass a bill to protect NM farmers from being sued if they are in possession of an unintended GE product. In 2011, the bill made it to the House floor in record time with a first vote tied 34 to 34. A second vote six days later resulted in a loss of votes (42 to 27) due to heavy lobbying by the NMCA and the biotech companies. If a person does not want GE traits in their seed or GE crops on their land, then why does a company, or in NM’s case, NMSU, have the right to sue a person whose property has been trespassed on by these crops? If there is nothing to be concerned about, then why have the NMCA and the biotech companies lobbied relentlessly against this bill? After all, the people of NM are providing the seeds, funds and use of public institutions for the development of the GE chile for free.

The fear of contamination is real with proven severe economic consequences for US farmers, local and international trade. In2001 and 2003,Bayer’s transgenic Liberty Link rice was planted in field trials on about an acre at Louisiana State University. In August 2006, the US Department of Agriculture found this unregulated rice in the US long-grain rice supply. This impacted an estimated 2.2 million acres for four years, led to an international ban on US rice and over $1 billion in losses for US farmers.

New Mexicans have every right to not trust the impact GE alfalfa will have on NM agriculture, water rights and land ownership if farmers or ranchers decide to plant it. In the Monsanto Technology/Stewardship Agreement for 2010 (downloadable off the web) – a paragraph states:

“Grower agrees:

To accept and continue the obligations of this Monsanto Technology/

Stewardship Agreement on any new land purchased or leased by Grower that has Seed planted on it by a previous owner or possessor of the land; and to notify in writing purchasers or lessees of land owned by Grower that has Seed planted on it that the Monsanto Technology is subject to this Monsanto Technology/Stewardship Agreement and they must have or obtain their own

Monsanto Technology/Stewardship Agreement.”

If a farmer or rancher plants GE alfalfa or any other GE crop, then that land and water rights, effectively have a perpetual lien against them by Monsanto.

The New Mexico Chile Advertising Act

In 2011, the NMCA successfully lobbied to get the NM Chile Advertising Act passed. There was no need for this bill. In 2009, the NM legislators had passed a bill called “Labeling of NM Products,” which provides for branding NM agricultural products based on regional, varietal or specialty labels. So what is the difference between the two? In the NM Chile Advertising Act, it is the NMSU Board of Regents and the “chile industry” that will promulgate the rules of how this bill will be enforced; not the NM Department of Agriculture. So now the same entities that are developing GE chile, growing-out seeds for NMSU, and who will own the patent on this GE chile ­– will decide what constitutes “New Mexico chile.” This is dangerous.

In recent years there has been a proliferation of laws that prohibit seed saving, passed in other countries. Mexico passed one in 2007 after much lobbying by biotech seed companies. It is now against the law for farmers to exchange seeds unless they are certified or registered with the proper entity. What does this mean for NM farmers? Are we all going to have to register our farms, certify our seeds or be included in some type of database in order to exchange our seeds with our neighbors? Will we be forced to only purchase seed certified by NMSU or the Chile Pepper Institute in order to call it NM chile? This NM Chile Advertising Act will create conflicts and needs to be repealed.

“If You’re Proud of It, Label It.”

At the Albuquerque march, Michael Reed, a farmer and saver/breeder, spoke on behalf of Save NM Seeds, a group dedicated to ensuring a sustainable food future and protecting seeds. “It is about who controls access and choices. Do you want someone sitting in a corporate boardroom deciding what you get to eat and how it’s grown? Because that is what’s happening.”

Industry has refused to label foods that contain genetically engineered products. Like Reed stated, “If you are proud of your product, label it.” President Obama promised to get labeling for food. To date, this has not happened. Why is labeling required in the EU and not in the US? Syngenta, BASF and Bayer are headquartered in the EU where planting of GE crops is prohibited, but they sell their GE seeds in the US. Do we not have the right to choose what we want to feed our children? Do we not have the right to choose what businesses we want to support? Where is our freedom to farm?

Vote with Your Money and Your Voice

The most powerful act you can do is to vote with your money and your voice. Let businesses, legislators and farmers know what you think. Other actions you can take:

• Change the way you eat. Read labels to make intelligent decisions. If you do not want to eat GE foods, avoid all corn, soy and canola products unless they are labeled organic.
• Support your local farms and insist that they sign the pledge to not plant GE chile, should it ever become available.
• Go to farmers’ markets and/or join a CSA. A CSA is Community Supported Agriculture, where people purchase a share to pay the local farmer for the crops grown that year.
• Get to know your local farmers, ask how they grow their crops and where they get their seed, and let them know why you’re asking. Better still;
• Become a farmer (even a backyard farmer) and grow your own, even if it is just herbs and flowers.
• Learn to save seed.
• Educate yourselves. Do research.

Isaura Andaluz is a native New Mexican. info@savenmseeds.org, www.savenmseeds.org

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Clarissa Duran

Northern New Mexico is known for its fresh green chile, red chile ristras and chile powder. Chile is not only a staple in most homes; it is a vital part of New Mexican life. Chile is served in Pueblo homes during public feast days. It is served during the Holy Week observed by most of the communities surrounding Española.

GMO chile threatens the future existence of Traditional Chile. Many of us know the story of Monsanto vs. farmer Percy Schmeiser. GMO chile promises that there may be many similar cases to come. But more than lawsuits from whichever corporation will own the patent of GMO chile, the fear we face is losing part of our way of life. During a lecture at UNM, Vandana Shiva talked about losing the sacred parts of a culture as a gateway to losing the culture entirely. Certainly, chile is that gateway.

A northern New Mexico farmer or gardener knows her/his seed, and has probably been growing from it for generations. He/she plants it, watches to see which are the strongest plants, and saves those plants for seed stock. As Juan Estevan Arellano wrote in a GFT article, the farmer may even mix the seed and hybridize it with other strains from the area to give it certain qualities. The plants mature and bear fruit. The family is involved in the process. Young ones learn to plant, weed, water and know what a joy new life brings!

Come harvest time, the family may gather to roast green chile and tie chile into ristras that will become red and dry in the sun. The family will eat the fruit of their labor and love will bloom over the taste that their families have known for hundreds of years. Chile and northern New Mexico are bound to one another. Together we cycle through life. Year after year we learn about each other. Our culture grows.

To celebrate this heirloom crop, we will hold the first annual New Mexico Traditional Chile Summit on January 7. Teacher/farmer/ Ph.D. candidate Miguel Santistevan is our keynote speaker. Community members and farmers will learn about the threat of GMO chile. A panel of chile lovers, growers and activists will present information on the bills in the NM Legislature that gave NMSU the funding to research and develop GMO chile. They will talk about their experience fighting to stop this threat. We will watch award-winning filmmaker Chris Dudley’s “GEnetic Chile: The Movie,” after which he will host a Q&A session. The Summit will also feature a Traditional Chile Cook-off (to enter, go to our website).

Please join us: The New Mexico Chile Summit will be held at the Oñate Center in Alcalde, just north of Española, January 7, beginning at 9 am. There is no charge.

Clarissa Duran is director of ¡El Tiempo! Nuevo México. eltiemponm@gmail.com, https://www.eltiemponm.org/

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L. Acuña Sandoval

Seed saving became even more important to me recently as a farmer when I came close to losing a particular corn variety in my seed stock. ‘Hopi Pink’ is an excellent flour corn that is extremely rare. I haf collected it at a seed exchange a few years back. I grew this variety only in an isolated part of my field in 2010 along with rare winter squash (‘Lakota’) and sunflowers (‘Tarahumara’). I harvested three bushels after sowing about a quarter pound of seed, then just put it aside and forgot about it. I started looking for the seed for planting in 2012 within my disorganized seed collection, and to my horror, realized that it had been eaten by something. I finally gave up looking through my boxes and started perusing online catalogs and rare seed banks for it. I became curious if I could find any other rare corns. It was difficult to locate them anywhere. Seeds of Change, the original seed source, does not carry this specific heirloom corn anymore, and one of the only sources that did have them was selling it for as much as $18 for 25 seeds! I thought, “What could any seed grower possibly do with 25 seeds?” Corn has to be planted in a four-row minimum for wind pollination, and to keep the genetic diversity intact I would need quite a bit. I even looked at the National Plant Germplasm System that the USDA maintains¹, and still I had no luck. What I finally realized from this eye-opening example and others was that some seed banks are dwindling, and it is getting harder to find the same seed year after year.

Collecting and maintaining seed banks that are acclimated to a specific area such as northern New Mexico is more important now than ever. Sustainability of a farm system depends on growing seed that has been raised on-farm and is able to adapt to disease pressure, drought, and is cold-hardy for our short growing season. What better way to accomplish this than to raise seed on the farm? Saving your own seeds and planting them year after year will, overall, increase local food sources availability, increase the robustness of the seed bank, and it is cost-effective. Saving seed is not easy at times (fermenting tomato seed can be a lot of work). I am constantly learning how to be more efficient at it. Organic Seed Alliance (OCA) has an online seed-saving guide² and tutorials, and offers numerous other sources that I have found to be very useful for understanding how to save seeds. Cuatro Puertas³ is a local New Mexico community development corporation that has projects that assist local farmers and local rural economic development. It also maintains a seed bank and preservation project, the Arid Seed Cache⁴, that teaches seed saving and preserves local heirloom and arid seeds from New Mexico and other areas.

Another great source for seed saving is Seed to Seed¹, which details how to collect seed based on individual plant families and seed-saving techniques. One of the most important aspects I have been studying is how specific plant families accomplish pollination. If the plant family is self-pollinating only such beans in the Fabaceae family, then isolation distance is not an issue. Peppers and tomatoes, which are both in the family Solanaceae, require a minimum isolation distance of 800 feet and 400 feet respectively², to collect seed that has not been cross-pollinated. Next season I am tackling the Cucurbit family (squash, cucumbers), which can cross easily within varieties and is categorized as a family that outbreeds. To control pollination I am attempting several methods. One way to negate insect pollination is just growing the type for seed collection within a different group such as one variety from Cucurbita, for example,C. Pepo grown only in the field with C. Maxima. Otherwise, the correct ‘open-pollinated’ isolation distance for two summer squash types is 1-2 miles! The most common way to control pollination within this plant family is covering/taping some of the female and male blossoms right before they open, pollinating the female with the male blossom, and then taping the female bloom until fruit set³. You have to repeat several sets of this technique to maintain the existing population genetics and mark the fruit to collect clearly. Covering the entire target seed crop with insect barrier cloth can also help control unintentional pollination.

Crop specific charts are invaluable to learn isolation distances needed for collecting pure strains⁴. Another consideration is the minimum number of plants to grow to maintain the genetic diversity of the species. If you only grow one or two plants, this will end up being a small genetic pool for important characteristics such as adaptability, disease resistance, uniform size and color, and maturity time. Also, if the plant interbreeds with just a few plants, this may cause ‘genetic depression,⁵’ which greatly weakens the plant, fruit and seed quality. Roguing is also important, which is removing the less desirable plants and fruit from the collection process. It is also important to determine the desired plant characteristics (phenotype) and ability to withstand disease and drought conditions. I never collect seed from a plant that has any overt sign of disease, especially viruses.

In my collection and seed-saving efforts in the last seven years, I have seen some amazing transformations in some varieties’ seed banks. ‘Hopi Red’ amaranth seed that I have collected and grown for a few seasons improved in both vigor (many seed heads) and stature (3 feet to 12 feet). Brandywine tomato ‘Ben Quisenberry,’ named for the plant breeder that maintained and improved this heirloom for many years, is another variety that is a success and standard on the farm. The local pepper landrace ‘Cañoncito’ that has been grown in one field for more than 150 years had less than 5% wilt in 2011¹ in several farm trials, and year after year it is decreasing. And we are finally collecting onions that have been out-selected within a few seasons, that both bulb and overwinter and aren’t sensitive to our day length.²

National conferences such as the Organic Seed Growers Conference ³ and local seed exchanges can be a great source for learning seed saving and to share seeds. One important source is Seed Savers Exchange and their annual yearbook publication of seed sharing⁴. Last year’s seed exchange at Northern New Mexico College had a massive turnout. I was mobbed for the local seed I brought to share (much to my delight). This coming year promises more local seed exchanges in Cañoncito near Dixon and UNM-Taos. We will encourage others to both save the seed they collect and bring seeds to share with others.

The biggest reason to work at mastering seed saving and distribute seed locally was not so obvious at first. I may not have a second chance to collect a specific seed bank from another farmer; the seed I depend on may disappear or change. Also having a local seed system in place helps farming become sustainable locally and may withstand any changing weather conditions. I observed a drastic change in seed quality this year in a standard cucumber I grow. In trials with this cucumber four different manufacturer years were grown side by side. Two years looked somewhat similar, but the other two plantings were not uniform, or even the same fruit shape, and had more disease and nutrient issues. In the current post-transgenic plant environment, it is vital to be able to execute an offensive and save the seed I need to farm, including cover crops and make these tasks part of my harvesting work. The quality of the seed is also much better over time if grown in my own fields since seed banks can acclimate to field environments.

I finally organized my seed banks and am adding the 2011 collected seed. The ‘Hopi Pink’ flour corn did re-appear, much to my relief. I had placed one large box in the house away from the animals and birds and immediately took these off the cobs and placed them in ball jars. I will be distributing the seed in 2013 after I grow it out next year. I don’t want to be the only ‘seeds person’ holding this rare irreplaceable seed or any other again.

L. Acuña Sandoval is an organic farmer, researcher and a faculty member at UNM-Taos. She actively maintains a local northern New Mexico seed bank and a research farm in Dixon, NM.

FOOTNOTES:

1 – National Plant Germplasm USDA, http://www.ars-grin.gov/npgs

2 – http://www.seedalliance.org/Education/

3 – http://c4puertas.org/, Sharon Henderson, Programs Manager

4 – Josha Cravens, Project Director of Arid Crop Seed Cache

5 – “Seed to Seed: seed saving and growing techniques for vegetable gardeners,” by Suzanne Ashworth, Kent Whealy – Seed Savers Exchange (2002) – Paperback –228 pages – ISBN 1882424581

6 – For commercial production. Home use is less distance. “A Seed Saving Guide for farmers and Gardeners” Organic Seed Alliance, downloadable pdf file: http://www.seedalliance.org/Publications

7 – “Seed to Seed: Seed Saving and Growing Techniques for Vegetable Gardeners,” by Suzanne Ashworth, Kent Whealy – Seed Savers Exchange (2002) pp. 99-104, ISBN 1882424581

8 – http://www.seedalliance.org/Publications/, “A Seed Saving Guide for Farmers and Gardeners” Organic Seed Alliance, pp. 25-27

9 – “Recent approaches to the genetic basis of inbreeding depression in plants,” David E. Carr, et al, Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. B (2003) 358, 1071-1084

10 – “Western Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (WSARE) grant 2011-2013, FW11-030, “Pepper (Capsicum annum) Cultivation, Conservation, and Soil Ecology in Low-Input and Certified Organic Agricultural Systems,” Principal Investigator: Loretta Sandoval.

11 – “Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades: The Complete Guide to Natural Gardening” Steve Soloman, 368 pages, Sasquatch Books; 5^th edition (01/07/02), ISBN-10: 1570612404, pp. 327-328

12 – http://www.seedalliance.org/

13 – http://www.seedsavers.org/Content.aspx?src=membership.htm

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La Milpa: A Sustainable Model

Juan Estévan Arellano

When looking for a model of sustainability, I prefer too look at what is around us that has worked. Then I try to understand it and see if it can be improved. It’s kind of like fixing an old automobile instead of simply doing what may appear to be the easy alternative – buying a new one.

Every New Mexican I am sure has heard the word “milpa” if they have ever visited a Native American or Indo-Hispano farm in northern New Mexico. Growing up in the Embudo Valley, when I heard the word “milpa,” it immediately conjured up a corn field that produced fresh sweet corn, corn for chicos, posole and atole – while the word “huerta” brought to mind the big chile field my mother tended to every summer.

Yet in Mesoamerica the word “milpa” usually referred not only to a corn plot but rather a sustainable model where corn, beans, squash and chile grew together and took care of each other as a family. One can still see remnants of this model throughout northern New Mexico, where it was an active model until a few years back. I personally still practice this model at my place in Embudo.

The word “milpa”is a Mexican Spanish term meaning “field,” from the Nahuatl (mil-li “field” + -pa “towards”) for a cultivated parcel, and it is usually a field that also includes melons and tomatoes besides the conventional three sisters and their first cousin chile.

According to H. Garrison Wilkes from the University of Massachusetts, the milpa “is one of the most successful human inventions ever created.” In an interview I did recently with Dr. Tomás Martinez Saldaña, professor of agriculture at Colegio Posgraduado in Texcoco, México, he said it is a concept that is a sociocultural construct rather than an agricultural system. He called it “a medida” in Spanish.

Today, one of the best examples of milpa agriculture can be seen in the chinampas of Xochimilco and throughout Chiapas and Oaxaca. The use of traditional milpa systems, which are nutritionally and environmentally complimentary, conserves local knowledge, and enables farmers to control their genetic resources, besides providing for local food production.

Corn lacks both lysine and tryptophan, something that beans have. Thus when people cook beans with chicos (dehydrated Concho corn cooked in an horno), one has a complete protein. A person needs less total food if the two are eaten together than if prepared and eaten separately.

Squash not only provides an array of vitamins; it is also a natural mulch and the plants conserve moisture around the corn and beans. Corn requires high levels of nitrogen in the soil to grow properly and quickly depletes the soil if planted alone. Bean plants (genus Phaseolus), on the other hand, are high in nitrogen, so when planted together it extends the life of the corn plot by helping to keep nitrogen levels healthy. The corn then repays the debt to the beans by providing stalks for the bean plants to cling to as they grow. The chile plants tend to repel insects that might attack the sisters.

Dr. Ronald B. Nigh, in his Ph.D. dissertation, wrote, “the making of milpa is the central, most sacred act; one which binds together the family, the community, the universe…[it] forms the core institution of Indian society in Mesoamerica, and its religious and social importance often appear to exceed its nutritional and economic importance.”

Another important aspect is that the traditional landraces are sustained by the milpa (huerta) systems of northern New Mexico, conserving crop genetic resources such as traditional chiles of the Española Valley like the Chimayó, Velarde, Cañoncito and others, as well as the Concho corn found in Trampas, Taos and Embudo, among other villages. As a result they make minimal use of toxic agrochemicals, if any are used at all.

Besides the crops that are planted by the farmer, the milpa also produces a lot of food in the form of quelites (both the wild amaranth – quelite juz, or quelite del burro – and quelite pardo – wild quinoa – which adds to the genetic diversity of such a system. The fallow areas of the milpa provide habitat for birds and small mammals that helps conserve the natural biodiversity by creating diverse landscapes.

The milpa (huerta) systems of my childhood were usually rectangular or square pieces of land of a quarter to half an acre, where corn, beans and squash (calabaza mexicana) were planted along the edges of the plot with chile interplanted with melons and watermelons. Among the chile, plenty of quelites and verdolagas (purslane) grew, which people used not only for human food but also to feed the hogs to get them ready for the winter matanza.

Today, my milpa, which is a lot smaller than the ones planted by my parents, is composed of a row or two of corn interplanted with beans and calabaza mexicana, then four to five rows of chile, two more rows of corn, tomatoes, then another five rows of chile and more corn. This is similar to the milpas I saw in Xochimilco. Now that I think back to the milpas I grew up seeing, I realize that they are based on the same model.

Since in a milpa everything is grown together, space is saved, as is water. When corn is planted separately from the beans, squash, chile and melons, more land is needed and also more water, so in the long run this model also saves time and thus labor.

Hopefully more people will look at their backyard and take a critical look at the surviving milpas. Instead of seeing them as a relic of the past like an old ‘57 Chevy, see them as viable sustainable systems that can still be replicated today.

Farmer, researcher and community leader, Juan Estevan Arellano has devoted most of his life to documenting the traditional knowledge of the Indo-Hispano in northern New Mexico, especially as it relates to land and water. He has served as mayordomo of the Acequia Junta y Ciénaga in the village of Embudo, and he is the translator-editor of the book Ancient Agriculture.

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Sasha LaPointe and Bonita Rickers

Piles of shredded paper and Christmas lights line the isle of the auditorium, leading up to the stage’s elaborate installation of discarded paper lanterns, crumpled newspaper piles and paper flowers. Behind the neatly arranged trash decor, aglow with coiled strands of tiny lights, is the post-apocalyptic wasteland of “The Road Warrior,” projecting a glowing scene of flaming cars, feathers and face paint. Outside the sound of newspaper skirts crinkling over the rustle of trash bags can be heard as the models line up at the door. David Bowie’s “Rebel, Rebel” comes over the sound system and cues the first trash-clad model to storm down the makeshift runway, flaunting a creation constructed entirely of recycled materials. The show has begun.

This is The Institute of American Indian Arts’ (IAIA) first ever Trash Bash and Fashion Show, themed Dumpster Warriors. Hosted by Student Sustainability Leadership (SSL), the event opened with a screening of Anne Leonard’s, “The Story of Stuff,” a short film on the creation and disposal of consumer goods. This was followed by, “Bag It,” a documentary that investigates plastic’s role in global society, directed by Suzan Baraza. Sustainable popcorn was served and a discussion facilitated by Annie McDonnell and Dana Richards followed. The evening was well received by the small but enthusiastic audience who offered their own insights and made the evening a success.

The following evening was kicked off by a meal provided by IAIA’s Bon Appetit Cafe. The food was all natural and predominately local, including vegetables grown in IAIA’s own community farm. Attendees were encouraged to sort their waste into compostable material and recycling. Vegetable food scraps were collected for IAIA’s new wormery.

The meal took place within an art exhibit curated by SSL, comprised entirely of art made from IAIA community recycled materials. Three days worth of trash was collected from campus dumpsters and displayed in the halls along with information about the amount of waste generated at the school. At 7:15 the attendees filed into the trash-filled auditorium to enjoy an exhibit of over 20 recycled designs created and modeled by students and faculty. The looks ranged from casual and contemporary to bizarre and fantastic. Fashions included such creations as a 17th century-inspired gown made from an old atlas, complete with accessories, a plastic bag tuxedo and gown set, a dryer sheet flapper dress, and a wedding gown made up of all manner of garden and household waste. Cardboard bustiers, a pair of aluminum and cardboard wings, and a newspaper crinoline tutu rounded out the show.

Annie McDonnell, a professor at IAIA, began SSL in the Spring 2011 semester as an internship for IAIA students who were interested in helping the college with the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment (ACUPCC). The class meets weekly and is led with the help of Dana Richards, Kim Parko and Thomas Antonio. This team of teachers has provided a variety of educational experiences about sustainability, including workshops with guest artists, sustainability haiku, and a trip to the 22nd Annual Headwaters Conference in Gunnison, Colorado.

The idea for Trash Bash was conceived by two students in SSL’s first year, Sasha LaPointe and Bonita Rickers. The goal of the project was to involve the student body in the quest for carbon neutrality on campus in an engaging and ostentatious manner. The event was held off until the Fall 2011 semester and brought to fruition with the help of Studio Arts major Monica Gutierrez (Hopi and Santa Clara). With the leadership of this trio and the immense support of the SSL team, this vision was made a reality.

Other SSL projects include nature trails and a variety of gardens for medicine, food, basketry and pollination. A significant amount of work went into the Haozous Art and Sustainability Garden, begun with the support of Native artist Bob Haozous. IAIA students have built a cob oven and benches with Jonah Hill (Hopi), painted murals exploring tribal ideas of ecology and sustainability, and planted waffle gardens inspired by Roxanne Swentzell’s (Santa Clara) Flowering Tree Institute.

SSL continues to work with IAIA’s Climate Action Committee on the ACUPCC and a Climate Action Plan will be formed in the coming months for the campus. The group is also planning and facilitating an Intergenerational Conference on Indigenous Peoples and Climate Change in the spring. This conference will include dialogue with Native elders and youth on traditional ecological knowledge and climate justice, as well as stories of Native communities and the way they are reacting to climate change.

Trash Bash was SSL’s first community event and a great success for this fledgling group of young environmental activists. They will begin hosting regular events at the school to continue their mission of involving the IAIA student body in sustainable practices and raising awareness of climate issues among Native youth.

Sasha LaPointe (Coast Salish) is a Creative Writing major in her second year at the Institute of American Indian Arts. This is her second semester with SSL. In addition to Trash Bash, she has organized a medicinal plants garden on campus.

Bonita Rickers (Ponca) is an Indigenous Liberal Studies and Studio Arts major at IAIA, and this is her second semester with SSL. She has worked on recycling, composting and vermicomposting projects with the Haozous garden and the USDA farm.

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