Medium
Last week, I joined a webinar to discuss a new book on seeds and the importance of traditional farming. I was asked a provocative question: “In your book, Eating Tomorrow, you report on many farmer-led agroecological projects and you highlight the obstacles they face, from large corporations and unsupportive government policies. What conditions do such projects need to be successful?”
It was a welcome question, and it allowed me to reflect on some of the more inspiring examples I came across in my research travels. One of the most impressive was from Cuetzalán, an indigenous community in Mexico’s Puebla state. Yes! Magazine had excerpted my account from Eating Tomorrow and I expanded on that, highlighting the remarkable degree of power and autonomy these organized communities were able to achieve.
In his comprehensive book, All Starts with Seeds: Farmer-Scientist Journeys towards Biodiversity and a Secure Future (Tellwell, 2025), Ethiopian-born plant scientist Awegechew Teshome provides an impressive range of farmer-researcher collaborations from around the world. He asks his own provocative question: “Could the path to sustainability begin with the people who never left it?”
In Cuetzalán, I encountered just such a community. Here was a well-organized group of indigenous people, more than 30,000 families working in more than 400 cooperatives to grow most of their own food. They exercise a remarkable degree of control over their seeds and their lives.
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