Rainforest Superfoods for the Future (with video)
As the so-called "staple" crops of the world (wheat, rice, potatoes, corn and soy) become more precarious, more damaging to soils and less sustainable, what foods can we explore as viable alternatives to feeding growing populations?
First, the foods must be nutrient dense quality energy sources. Secondly, they must have significant yields. Finally, they will only help ameliorate problems like deforestation and herbicide use IF they can be cultivated in forest-type farms, aka agroforestry systems.
Here in the cloud forest of Ecuador, we cultivate three such foods with potential to bring quality calories high in protein, Omega lipids, vitamins, and crucial minerals to people whose health is threatened by vast monocultures of inferior foods, mostly exported. Nutrient-dense peach palm and Sacha inchi have great potential for processing and marketing on a global scale. As for cacao, it's use as a food source is relatively unknown relative to its confectionary or "ceremony" use. But the cacao bean also is a balanced food source high in fiber and minerals.
Every grain dominated civilization has eventually suffered an ugly collapse. We have alternatives. The time to make a transition from cereal monocultures to diverse perennial tree crops is now.
At Sueño de Vida we work in a meaningful way to heal land ravaged by deforestation. How meaningful? According to a recent UN Foresight Brief on climate change,
--It is of the utmost importance to stop deforestation and to increase reforestation efforts around the world. Agricultural practices should focus on soil building, year-round soil cover with plants and the use of agroforestry methods.
That is exactly what we do here at SdV. You can help by helping us do what we do every day: plant forests that nurture soil, people, and community.
Click HERE to donate directly to our reforestation fund OR make a monthly pledge on our Patreon.
Thank you.
_____________________________________________________
Kristen Krash is the director and co-founder of Sueño de Vida, a regenerative agroforestry farm, education center, nature reserve in Ecuador’s Chocó Andino Cloudforest. Prior to moving, Kristen was known for her guerrilla gardens — productive green spaces she created in any available space. Now an urban transplant in the South American rain forest, she has adapted her urban gardening and sustainability skills to large-scale reforestation of degraded land. She takes a practical and accessible approach to helping others achieve more balance and self-sufficiency in their lives.
Kristen’s articles and interviews have been featured on popular sustainability platforms like Abundant Edge and The Mud Home, and in the Rainforest Regeneration Curriculum at the Ecological Restoration Camps.