Every morning radios scratch on in a 5am chorus of static mixed with rooster calls. The sun is still thirty minutes away and the world is morning fog and stiff joints. Wives start fires while husbands gather supplies for the day. Boiled plantains serve as a quick breakfast before heading to the farms, which are typically at least 20 minutes into the jungle. It's now 6 am and the sun has just peaked its head over the horizon.
At the farm, two sister crops support an entire way of life: yuca and plantain.
Yuca, a tuber that grows underground, is a cultural keystone for the community. Collecting the daily yuca is usually done by women, who must first clear the underbrush to access the small trees. The majority of yuca is used to make masato, or winú in the Shawi language. Important culturally and calorically, this local fermented drink is consumed from dawn to dusk. It replaces water for community members, as it is often safer to drink: the fermentation process kills many harmful bacteria present in river-water.
|
|
Plantains are the sister to yuca, providing food for the community year-round. Plantain and yuca are the only crops that consistently grow through the seasonal extremes of wet and dry weather. Traditionally, plantains are boiled and served with salt, but can take other forms after being mashed. The plants themselves fruit only once, producing massive bushels of plantains, so heavy that people must support them with sticks until they're ripe. Otherwise, the the bushels may fall early, and animals will devour the lot before the night ends.
|
Working on the Farm
click to enlarge and read more
In no other place on earth do plants grow as fast as the jungle; however, Amazonian soil is actually quite nutrient poor, as most of the ecosystem's minerals are stored in the plants themselves, aboveground. In order to farm in such an environment, community members must rotate which parcels of land they farm year to year, as not to deplete the soil's nutrient reserves. With vines and weeds growing at tremendous speeds, people of Nuevo Progreso burn the land to clear room for crops and return nutrients to the soil.
At any given time, roughly half of a farmer's land lays fallow, while the other half grows food. Rotational farming has been practiced for generations, but, as hunting and fishing become harder, people are choosing to adapt their farming practices. In order to make money to support increasingly difficult traditional food practices, people are diverting some of their active fields towards growing Cacao, the plant responsible for chocolate. Supported by the government with tools and training, many community members are making the tradeoff of growing less food for making more money.
|
When traditional life is pushed to its limits, people find a way forward, holding onto what they can and shedding what they cannot. The transition to cash crops is fueled by the desire to send kids to school. It is fueled by the desire to have more time and resources for hunting. It is fueled by the desire to have a safety net in case a flood destroys your home. Growing cacao lowers the amount of traditional food people have to eat, but provides them with money to invest in the other activities and securities. This is a story of adapting to eat, a story of change and hybridization, one that reflects in life across Nuevo Progreso. This is the story that IHACC is working to understand and share, not only here in Peru, but also with Indigenous communities in Uganda and the Canadian Arctic. By understanding the challenges these communities face in light of climatic and social change, IHACC works to inform better policy for the people impacted most by these issues.