Last fall, students in a seminar for Sustainable Entrepreneurship at Leuphana University, Lüneburg, Germany were given the assignment to support our Guatemalan partner organization, Qachuu Aloom. They reached out to The Garden’s Edge for direction. The assignment presented us with an opportunity to ask some important questions, like, how do we flip the development narrative? How do we move away from “helping” to embrace liberating practices that address the tremendous imbalances of power and wealth? How does supporting oppressed people help us recognize our own oppression, or the way we might unwillingly play a role in oppressing others because of preexisting structures of imbalance? One example is our dependency on industrial agriculture or our profound disconnect from our natural environment and the origins of our food. What can we learn from the experiences of Qachuu Aloom? How can we use education as a tool for social change and what’s the most powerful way to reciprocate?
This story comes from Clara Brink, one of the five students from Germany.
The Garden’s Edge, helped us understand the culture of the Maya Achí, how they live in harmony with nature and also what discrimination they have experienced and are still experiencing. We made it our mission to create awareness for the Maya Achí and their admirable way of living here in Germany and to fundraise money to support the scholarships Qachuu Aloom is providing to young Maya Achí women.
One major aspect of our awareness campaign is seed saving, since it should not be just an issue in Guatemala, but in the entire world. When we first informed ourselves about why seed saving is essential and what hybrid and genetically modified (GM) seeds do to nature, we were shocked at how little we knew about something that is so harmful for the world we live in. Biodiversity is constantly shrinking and farmers that become dependent on huge seed companies such as Monsanto are part of the problem.
In preparation for a week-long conference at their university, the students researched Qachuu Aloom’s seed saving practices and the seed situation closer to home. At the conference, they held presentations about seed saving and about the Maya Achí in front of a great number of students, professors, and other visitors.
We were impressed about how many people actually were interested in what we had to say and asked what they could do about it. Something that everyone here in Germany can do on a daily basis to reduce the production of hybrid and GM seeds, is to avoid buying hybrid and GM products. We found out that the supermarkets, farmers, and food companies are forced by law to identify if a fruit or vegetable is made of hybrid or GM seeds or not. The indicator of a hybrid plant is a little “F1” standing for “filial generation 1” on the package or label of the product. As little as it is, it’s quite hard to find, but if you know what to search for, it’s not impossible.
Another possibility is to buy from local farmers or maybe even to plant some seeds yourself. There are quite a few seed initiatives in Germany that share local and traditional seeds among their members, trying to avoid seeds not native to our climate in Germany. To underscore our point, we bought two different apple varieties the audience could see and taste. One of them was a hybrid plant, bred to perfection, originally from New Zealand. The other one has its roots in northern Germany and is already known and widely spread since the 18th century. There was an obvious difference in taste, but also in appearance. The hybrid apple looked nearly perfectly round, the shiny surface and the red and green color without any brown marks, made it appear attractive. Another aspect we told the audience, an apple, a tomato or a broccoli don’t need to look perfect! Do not go to the supermarket and choose the most perfectly looking fruit you can find, it’s not in the nature of nature to look or be perfect and the increasing demand for perfectly bred fruits will destroy our biodiversity. We found a shocking statistic showing that only 30 crop varieties are used for 95% of the nutrition worldwide!
The Qachuu Aloom community can absolutely be seen as a role model. The knowledge of planting traditional seeds, they pass on to the next generations, does not only contribute to the preservation of biodiversity in Guatemala, it also helps to maintain the Mayan culture. That the Maya Achí still hold on to traditions and customs of their ancestors cannot be taken for granted, since they have been discriminated by the Guatemalan government already for a long time.
For instance, there is a lack of opportunity for Mayan girls to finish high school and inadequate culturally appropriate education for those who do attend high school. To fight this injustice, Qachuu Aloom has been providing scholarships to member’s daughters for the past 10 years. The program does not only give girls opportunities to attend high school but also to develop a strong cultural identity. Many workshops such as learning the Achí language or getting to know the seed saving practices are implemented in the scholarships.
To fundraise money for Qachuu Aloom’s scholarships, the students created two online fundraising pages and an Instagram account. They collaborated with local companies, who donated products, that they could sell in a lottery to raise even more money.
The lottery turned out to be a huge success. We didn’t expect so many businesses to help by providing us with vouchers and goodies. One of the best things about it was the interest the people who bought had in knowing where their money goes to. Besides our presentations, the lottery was a perfect way to inform students and other visitors about seed saving and the Maya Achí.
All in all, we are very thankful for the insights we gained in the Mayan culture and for what we learned from the Achí and their way of living. Even if we call our country “developed” and Guatemala is counted as a “developing” country, it is so crucial to be aware of the fact that our development went wrong in many ways and that we can learn a lot from regions and societies we used to see as less developed.
In total, the students raised $395 US dollars! We’re grateful to them and to their professor, Jorge Guerra Gonzalez, for this valuable opportunity to learn and to share. If you would like to donate to The Garden’s Edge visit the SUPPORT page on our website.
