Fixing Food 2, Ep. 4: Seeds of Resilience

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“Seeds of Resilience” explores the remarkable resilience of indigenous Mayan communities and their enduring connection to a crop the Spanish conquistadors tried to wipe out – amaranth - a tall, leafy grain long derided in the United States as “pigweed.”

Every year, partnering with Sarah Montgomery, a small group of Mayan activist farmers from Guatemala embark on missions to the US to promote the cultivation of amaranth here. In late September, on a farm in upstate New York, the group begins a day-long celebration of prayers and offerings as they prepare to harvest the brilliant crimson amaranth flowers. They explain to local farmers the grain’s exceptional nutritional values, how easy it is to grow and its resistance to climate change. As Sarah translates and observes, “The best way I can describe working with amaranth, is that it feels good, it feels happy. There's a lot of hope in this seed.”

By promoting amaranth, indigenous activists and allies like Sarah are not only reclaiming an important cultural heritage, but also offering an easy, sustainable grain alternative to the pressing climate challenges created by our monolithic, industrialized food systems.

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Main credits

Williams, Sue (screenwriter)
Williams, Sue (film director)
Williams, Sue (film producer)

Other credits

Editor, Christina Kelly; director of photography, Jerry Risius, Sam Shinn; score, Carmen Borgia.

MARC Record See Worldcat record

Keywords

amaranth,indigenous knowledge,traditional agriculture,agricultural practices,seeds,pigweed,Mayan,Maya,Guatemala,knowledge exchange,sustainability,cultural traditions; "Fixing Food 2, Ep. 4: Seeds of Resilience"; Bullfrog Films

[00:00:00.01]
[insects chirping]

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[Aurelia speaking in Spanish]

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[classical piano music]

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[Julián speaking in Spanish]

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[woman speaking in Spanish]

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- We have guests from Guatemala.

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This is their seed.

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See how it's grown so big in this climate

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that's so different
from where it came from.

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As we look at climate change,

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it's a plant that it's so healthy

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and that can adapt to so many

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different places and conditions.

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[Aurelia speaking in Spanish]

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[upbeat electronic music]

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- [Speaker 1] The way we farm today

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will not sustain human
civilization as we know it.

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- [Speaker 2] There's
not gonna be enough water

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and there's not gonna be enough land.

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- [Speaker 1] We are
never going to replace

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traditional agriculture,
but we sure can innovate.

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- [Speaker 3] We can learn
how to at least pivot

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and to work with this changing world.

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[music continues]

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[insects chirping]

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[gentle acoustic guitar music]

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[rooster crows]

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- You can plant the amaranth,

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harvest the amaranth, cook the amaranth,

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and know nothing about the
history of the amaranth.

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When I got to Rabinal,

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I was introduced to Farmer-to-Farmer,

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which is a methodology for farming.

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So the idea is that one
farmer teaches another farmer,

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and they're farmers from
the similar circumstances

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that speak the same language.

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So it's a different model
than having agronomists

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coming and saying,

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"Oh, you should do this
and that to your field."

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[birds chirping]

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[Julián speaking in Spanish]

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- The amazing thing about amaranth

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is that it's a complete protein.

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It's a great plant for maintaining health.

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It doesn't need a ton of
special attention to it.

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And then it also tells and
holds a story inside of it

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of the disconnection and
the genocide of people.

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[pensive instrumental music]

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[man speaking in Spanish]

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- We started Qachuu Aloom with 12 people.

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They began to see that by using
these sustainable practices,

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by building compost, by using cover crops,

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that they could have healthy gardens.

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[Aurelia speaking in Spanish]

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[gentle piano music]

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[woman speaking in Spanish]

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- There's a way of using language to say

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that this plant is not important.

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And one of the ways that amaranth is known

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in the United States is pigweed.

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[dramatic musical flourish]

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- You may have Palmer pigweed and you say,

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"Oh, there's nothing I can do about this,

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"I can't stop this weed."

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Yes, you can!

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- In these giant GMO corn fields

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that we have across the country,

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here is these wild amaranths

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that come up like they always have,

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accompanying the corn in the fields.

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But it's seen as this massive pest

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in industrial agriculture.

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[tense instrumental music]

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[woman speaking in Spanish]

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- [Sarah] First, I ask permission

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from the great spirit of the sun.

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[speaking in Spanish]

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- [Sarah] We also ask permission

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from the direction of the water.

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[speaking in Spanish]

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- [Sarah] We also ask permission

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from where the wind comes from.

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And if everybody brings
just one seed home today,

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we can multiply this plant
in every one of your gardens.

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- [Woman] Yay!

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[crowd chuckles and applauds]

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[Julián speaking in Spanish]

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- [Sarah] When you see that the birds

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are flying on top of the flowers.

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[speaking in Spanish]

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- [Sarah] That's the sign that amaranth

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is ready to be harvested.

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[Julián speaking in Spanish]

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- We're gonna harvest just
one flower per person.

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[Julián speaking in Spanish]

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- [Sarah] You just do it like this.

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So if you'd like to join
us in harvesting one.

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[gentle instrumental music]

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So you can sit around the cloth.

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Let's clean on top of that.

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- [Child] Can you eat
all the amaranth leaves?

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- You can eat all amaranth
leaves when they're younger,

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but you wouldn't want to eat
these leaves because right now

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the plant is sending all of its energy

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up into its flower to produce seed.

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The best way I can describe
working with amaranth

[00:08:18.05]
is that it feels good, it feels happy.

[00:08:20.08]
There's a lot of hope in this seed

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that can grow in so
many different climates.

[00:08:29.05]
[Julián speaking in Spanish]

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- We might want to think that the solution

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to climate change, it's
gonna be this top-down thing

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where, like, someone comes
up with a great idea.

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But really, we've had kind
of the solution all along.

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The solution is already there.

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It's within nature,

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it's within the seeds,

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and we just need to learn how to listen.

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[gentle piano music]

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