Let's talk about food. Specifically, the foods that wouldn't exist if it weren't for the indigenous people who discovered them, domesticated them, cultivated them, and are still growing them today. Indigenous groups around the world are making headway in the struggle for food security and sovereignty. In celebrations of World Indigenous Peoples Day on August 9th, we honor the ingenuity, perseverance, and generosity of those working today to preserve the historic varieties and traditional growing methods that not only satisfy hunger but culturally feed the soul.
The People of Kafa and the Discovery of Coffee
As the legend goes, Kaldi, a young goatherd in Kafa, Ethiopia, one day found his goats eating berries from a nearby tree. After eating the berries, the goats become unusually active, so much so that they wouldn't sleep at night. Kaldi tried the berries himself, affirmed the effect, and brought them to the abbot of the local monastery, where the monks had been having trouble staying awake for late evening prayers. At first the abbot didn't trust the source of the berries, and threw them into the fire. Once the aroma of the roasting berries reached him, however, he changed his mind and distributed the roasted innards of the cherries to his monks, who were then able to stay awake for their nightly devotions. Thus was Coffea arabica discovered.
Though the story itself is mythical, the Kafa region of southwestern Ethiopia is widely held to be the birthplace of arabica coffee, which makes up to 70% of the coffee grown worldwide. The people of Kafa, who call themselves Kafficho, are rightfully proud of their status as the founders of coffee and will defend that status against all comers. In 2018, when neighboring Djimma put up a banner at their airport proclaiming Djimma as the ‘homeland of Coffee Arabica,’ the people in Bonga (Kafa’s administrative capital) took to the streets for the very first time in the tens of thousands, crying “Coffee is from Kafa” in protest to Djimma’s claim., opens a new window
The Kafficho still harvest coffee from wild Coffea arabica plants growing in the cloud forests of the protected Kafa Coffee Biosphere Reserve, opens a new window, as well as from their own coffee gardens or the forest outskirts. In addition to using the beans themselves, Kafficho coffee growers sell it locally and have formed cooperatives that allow them to distribute their coffee beans to wider markets. The demand for wild coffee, certified as organic and fair trade, has increased, which has allowed Kafficho farmers to increase their earnings and support their families on land they have lived on for centuries.
The Quechua of the Andes and the Potato Park
Potato chips. French fries. The delicious topping to a Shepherd's Pie. Fans of these dishes owe a debt of gratitude to the Quechua of Peru and Bolivia, whose Incan ancestors first domesticated the root vegetable some eight thousand years ago.
Today, using traditional cultivation and preservation methods, communities of Quechua cultivate 1,367 varieties of native potatoes in the heart of the Andes mountains in Parque de la papa, or Potato Park. Established in 2000 to 2002 in collaboration with Asociación ANDES, the Quechua communities have created a sanctuary for the widespread biodiversity of their region and the indigenous people who live there.
They’re also preserving this Indigenous Biocultural Heritage for the benefit of future generations. Acting as ‘seed guardians’, the Quechua are using traditional agricultural practices to preserve current varieties and to test which varieties will be most resistant to climate change in the future. With crops as with other species of plants and animals, genetic diversity is the key to ensuring our food sources can adapt to changing or new environments in the future. As part of that work, in 2015 a group of Quechua farmers made a long journey from their home in the Andes to a small island between Norway & the North Pole, the home of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. With over two-thirds of the world’s food coming from just nine plants (potatoes come in at number 5 on the list), it’s vital to preserve a wide range of crop varietals that may be needed in the future to survive diseases and climate change. If there are hardy potatoes to be eaten in the future, we can thank the Quechua for them.
Maize in Mexico
47.6 billion bushels. That’s how much maize (corn in North America) was consumed world-wide in 2023-2024. It’s grown on every continent but Antarctica and it’s the second-most produced crop on the planet. If it wasn’t for some indigenous hunter-gathers in the Balsas river valley in south-central Mexico nine thousand years ago, maize as we know it wouldn’t exist.
It’s difficult to identify the specific group of indigenous people living today who were responsible for the first efforts to transform the wild grass teosinte, opens a new window into a staple crop. Archaeologically speaking, many different indigenous groups occupied this region over time and traded the increasingly useful maize up and down the Americas. By the time the Mexica (Nahua) people founded the Aztec empire in the mid 1300’s, maize was a sacred food for indigenous peoples from the Haudenosaunee in present-day New York to the Mapuche in modern-day Chile. Maize was planted as one of the ‘Three Sisters’ (maize, beans, and squash) which heralded a sustainable farming method providing vital food sources for indigenous peoples.
The largest indigenous group living in the Balsas river basin today are the Nahua, so named for Nahautl, the shared language spoken by the Mexica and their descendants. Native maize is still grown in this region in milpas,, opens a new window a method of farming that includes planting multiple types of crops together to better mimic a natural ecosystem. Farming this way also allows for increasing biodiversity for plants including maize, since local farmers continually harvest seeds that grow best in that area, in that climate, for the next planting. It's these kinds of farming methods that can preserve heritage varieties and lead the way to developing climate-change resistant maize in the future.
To learn more about indigenous peoples and their foodways, check out the following resources at your nearest Timberland Regional Library or online at TRL.org:
Online Resources & Streaming (Requires TRL library card to access)
A to Z World Food - Log in with your TRL library card to discover traditional recipes and learn food culture of 174 different countries. Articles discuss common indigenous foods and dishes, as well as elements of culture such as dining etiquette, special occasion foods, and more!
Global Road Warrior - Everything you ever wanted to know about 174 countries and more! The Food Culture & Recipes section is chock full of indigenous dishes, ingredients, and special occasion foods. Ethiopia's entry encourages you to try your hand at injera and many other traditional dishes.
Kanopy Indigenous Studies - Modern documentaries featuring indigenous cultures and indigenous points of view from all over the world.
Booklists
Books featuring food preparation, cooking methods, and recipes from indigenous authors around the world.
