A Common Life

Guatemala - Part I: The roots of change in Guatemalan Agriculture

• Taylor and Morgan Myers

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In this episode, I (Taylor) introduce you to a new journey Morgan and I have begun in Guatemala... And it actually started 13 years ago with a volcanoe, tropical storm, and a sink hole.

After listening to the pod, here is what my AI assitant "Jenkins" had to say about it:

"Fresh off the plane from Guatemala, I'm eager to share a story that's as much about serendipity as it is about the soil. When a volcanic eruption stranded me in this vibrant country years ago, it led to my best friend Brett and his wife establishing Missioteca, a mission organization. But that's only the beginning. This visit revealed a deeper narrative about the urgent need for sustainable, regenerative agriculture in a land where traditional farming is suffocated by agrochemicals. As I weave through the tale, I'll take you into the very fields where the future of nutrient-rich, sustainable food in Guatemala is being planted, one cover crop at a time.

The scent of chemicals in the fields was overwhelming, a stark contrast to the rich earthiness of healthy soil. This episode peels back the layers of pesticide use in Guatemala, examining the toll it takes on farmers' health and the environment. Yet amidst these challenges, there is hope. We'll explore the promise held in native cover crops and the trials that could revolutionize Guatemalan agriculture. Join me and listen to the voices of those at the heart of this transformation, the local farmers striving to reconnect with practices that nourish the land and their communities. This isn't just talk; it's a journey into the heart of a farming renaissance."

Mentioned in the show
Missioteca
The picture of Taylor standing in the middle of the cover crop trial.

Find us Elsewhere:
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LinkedIn - Taylor Myers

DM us on the socials or email us at Taylor@acommonlife.co

Music on the podcast was composed by Kevin Dailey. The artist is Garden Friend. The track is the instrumental version of “On a Cloud”

Speaker 1:

Hey everyone. So before we jump into this episode, I wanted to let you know that if I sound tired, it's because I really was tired. I recorded this podcast really late at night. I had just gotten back from Guatemala, like the day before, and wanted to get this recorded when it was still fresh on my mind and time these days I'm sure you all can understand the only time I really had available was just late at night. So I did it and after listening to myself and editing I'm like man I sounded really tired, so hopefully I don't put you to sleep too.

Speaker 1:

The other thing is I wanted to follow up because I never explained what a cover crop is and you'll see when I start talking and I'll go there. I say that I'll explain what it is, but I don't. So if you don't know what a cover crop is, I wanted to explain. A cover crop is something that a farmer or gardener plants in their garden or in their field and they really don't have an intention of harvesting it. It's there to cover the soil and feed the soil, and it also does other things like. It attracts beneficial insects and legumes, plants like peas. They fix nitrogen from the atmosphere into the soil, which is really important. They also have cover crops that send roots way down deep into the soil, which helps aerate the soil, and, of course, whenever you cut them or they die back, that is food for all of the microbes and the microbiology in the soil, which is critical to grow healthy, nutrient dense plants. So that's what a cover crop is and that will come into play. That explanation will help you better understand the context of a story in this podcast. So, with that being said, let's dive in.

Speaker 1:

Hey everybody, welcome to a common life podcast. In this episode, I'm going to be talking about my recent trip to Guatemala, and it's going to be a part, one of many parts to come. The story is slowly unfolding and I want to introduce you to the beginning part of it and share a little bit about some of the things that went on on this last trip that I took. So, without going into too many details, you need to know that I have a best friend, a friend that I've known since I was five years old, who lives in Guatemala. He has a mission organization that he and his wife run and it's called Missy Oteca, and he's been there for 10 plus years, and it's a funny story of how he got to where he is now. So 10 years ago actually 13 years ago 13 years ago, he and I we went to Guatemala for the first time and we didn't know exactly what we were going to be doing there. We didn't go on a mission trip with like other people. We went because we thought we might be called into the ministry and we might be missionaries. So we went and we met this one guy there, a local, and we spent the whole week with him and he took us around to different churches, he took us around to different schools where kids were, and it was an awesome week.

Speaker 1:

Well, while we were there that week, towards the end of the week there was a volcano that erupted and this volcano dropped like two inches of ash all over the city, the main city, guatemala city, and when I say ash, what I really mean is like black sand, and it covered the entire city and you know that means it was like a blanket, so it was in all of the gutters and the roads. And then a tropical storm passed over the country and dumped inch after inch after inch of rain. There was flooding and there was ash getting washed, like this black sand getting washed everywhere and then, on top of that, there was a massive hole, a massive sinkhole in the middle of the city opened up. It's crazy. Some of the pictures if you just Google sinkhole, guatemala city 2010, you'll see it. Crazy. That happened while we were there.

Speaker 1:

Well, this was towards the end of that first week and we went to the airport to fly home. And we got to the airport and they were like, yeah, sorry, like all flights out are canceled and it's probably gonna be another week before you can fly out. And we were like what? So our one week trip turned into a two week trip? And it just so happens that during that second week that's when we went to a church downtown Guatemala city, close to the dump where the city takes all of their trash. And we were at this church and one of our translators was the young lady who later became Brett's wife. Brett was my buddy and is my buddy, and now he is happily married to his wife of 10 plus years. They have two boys. They live very close to where that church was, where they met in downtown Guatemala city, and they are running a mission organization called Missy Oteca. So, fast forward 13 years.

Speaker 1:

I'm sitting here in my living room talking about that story, just getting back from Guatemala a week earlier, and it's been 13 years since I've been back and it was a long time coming getting into agriculture and getting into sustainability and then regenerative agriculture and my passion for growing food nutrient dense, healthy food and taking care of the soil to do that, to accomplish that goal of nutrient dense, sustainable food. It only made sense that one day I would go back to Guatemala, but I never knew what it would look like. And I say it made sense because the need in Guatemala is so big. The statistics are really mind boggling. I think it's like over half of the children in Guatemala right now are mentally and physically stunted because of malnutrition, and the problem is only getting worse.

Speaker 1:

And so I reached out to Brett this was probably six months ago plus and I asked him. I said so, brett, you have a mission organization that works with pastors and trains pastors and you have a really large network in Guatemala. Do you think there's any chance that this church network would be interested in? You know me coming and teaching and working with either the pastors or you know the ladies in the church, because it a lot of times it is the women that keep gardens, you know, or so I thought and and he was like, well, I don't know, maybe. And I thought, okay, well, I'm just gonna start developing a course. And Then on the other side I was like, and you know, I want to work with people here in the States as well, and I can work with churches here in the States, and so I just started developing this course and it worked out because, essentially, I was able to take everything in my head and put it out onto paper and get it organized and Go from A to Z. So I'm actually still in the process of doing that.

Speaker 1:

But in the process of doing this and talking with Brett, I continued to pursue this idea of what would it look like to take some of my passion and some of my Interest in regenerative agriculture and take it to Guatemala. So that's how the story kind of got started here recently, and it wasn't long before, I was on a zoom call with two guys one was Brett and the other was Joaquin and Joaquin is a gentleman who also has a heart and passion and feels called to Guatemala and His heart and what he was telling Brett and I is the fact that, yes, these kids are physically and mentally stunted, and what's happening is you have charitable organizations that are Are spread all throughout Guatemala and they're feeding these kids, they're doing their best to get food Into the bellies of these hungry, malnourished kids, but the problem is this food is almost always purchased from massive corporate Grocers, and a lot of the food is coming from outside of the country, and, and so the charitable dollars that are going to Purchase this food is leaving the country. And, yes, these kids are getting food, but the systemic problem isn't being addressed, and so the vision that Joaquin had and has is to Connect these charitable organizations, these feeding programs, with local farmers in Guatemala, and then those charitable dollars can eventually make their way into the local economy and Empower the local farmers there in Guatemala. Now it sounds like, of course, and and yes, but the problem is the farms and the farmers in Guatemala. Most of them are growing in a way that, when neither Joaquin nor I Agree with and I don't think many people would I was able. Well, I say I don't think many people would you know. The truth is, I really I really don't know if that's a true statement, but I was able to visit some of the farms.

Speaker 1:

When I was there in Guatemala and and I took pictures of the insecticides and the fungicides and the artificial fertilizers being used, and as I walked up to this tomato Plot, this field of tomatoes, like you could smell it. It's, it didn't mean it just wafts and hits you right in the face. This smell of like I think it was chlorine, honestly, which is? You know, I'm not sure I need to go back and look at the pictures, what exactly they're using, but just the bottles of insecticides and and Pesticides and it was just. It was all over the ground everywhere and the the smell hit you in the face and it did have a chlorine tint to it and I'm not sure exactly what they were using the chlorine for. It might have been for, you know, some type of fungicide, but the point is this food that they're growing is covered up in Pesticides and it's it's just destroying the soil life and these farmers are becoming more and more and more and more dependent on large corporate agrochemical, agricultural agrochemicals to keep going.

Speaker 1:

And this has not always been the case. In the 70s there was a huge it's actually the birthplace of the farmer to farmer movement, where farmers trained and worked with other farmers to train them in regenerative agriculture. It started in the 70s and then a lot of it was lost during the Civil War, and Now you just have a countryside that I visited that's just ravaged with with gardens, with with farm plots that are not growing Healthy, nutrient dense food, good, clean food, and so here's the problem You've got these farmers that are growing this food and it is being shipped off the market. The regulations there are Neal, you know in terms of you know how much, how much fertile or not how much fertilizer, but how much pesticides and insecticides are using, and these kids that are chronically malnourished aren't getting the nutrients that they need, and they literally live just down the road from Like farm fields everywhere and growing all kinds of different crops everywhere. So, to connect these farmers with these feeding programs, what we're looking to do and what we're trying to do is to work with these farmers and and get them to change their, their growing habits and grow in a way that they're feeding the soil and they're growing healthy, nutrient dense plants without, without the pesticides, and if they do that, then we can provide them with the market to sell their produce at a premium.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so? So this brings me to Really what I want to talk about in this episode and, like this part one, you know I Really believe in the type of agriculture and the type of growing that comes from a holistic approach and I think science absolutely backs me up in this. But the holistic approach is not just looking at the plant, but it's looking at the entire ecosystem, starting first and foremost with the soil and looking at all of the life in the soil and the life that interacts with the plant life and the connections there, and then the connections with the biological activity outside of the plants, like insects and other animals. It's like they're all connected and you cannot isolate the plant and just totally disregard the life and health of the soil and expect to grow nutrient dense, clean, healthy plants for humans, or for animals for that matter. You just can't do that, and unfortunately we live in a world where we have massive chemical corporations that control our food supply and they also are controlling our pharmaceuticals over here in the west, and personally it's not something that I agree with.

Speaker 1:

I really believe in a holistic, regenerative approach to agriculture, one that considers the ecology and the ecosystem of both the soil and the plants. And so not everyone agrees, and there's a reason why these farmers in Guatemala are using fertilizers and they're using these pesticides and they're using these insecticides. It's not just because they think it's cool. They're trying to put food. They're trying to take food and produce to market so that they can support their families, so that they can put food on the table, so they can feed their kids. Like, you can't just go in there and tell somebody they're doing it all wrong, and I'd be lying if I said like hey, is this right? Like, am I right? Because there's no huge movement for regenerative agriculture, for, looking at things from a holistic perspective, I mean, there's also a lot of people who disagree and who don't think it's important, and they're just like spray the plants and use synthetic fertilizers and they and they are, you know, they don't understand, or they just disagree.

Speaker 1:

And so there was a moment and I have a picture of it and I will put a link in the show notes of this, of this, of this moment where I was able to go and visit with, with the team that I was there with, and we were able to visit a farm plot where a trial was ran and the trial was testing out a cover crop of and I'll explain what a cover crop is in just a second. But it was testing out. This cover crop that was grown in Guatemala all the way back, like in the 70s, 60s. Like this is a native plant that has been growing in Guatemala for a long time and a farmer that we're working with. He's an older man, he's awesome, who like we're like one mind on this regenerative, holistic agriculture thing. Like it's so cool, he's from he's, he's from Guatemala. He was actually trained in in Tennessee, just up the road from where we live Crazy, but anyways, they were doing this trial and when we visited Guatemala you got to picture this okay, it's dry, everything is kind of like the shade of brown because we're in the dry season, and everything is like crunchy and dusty.

Speaker 1:

When we visited these farmers fields like it's just dry, dusty, crunchy the tomatoes we visited were on irrigation mostly, so they were green, but generally speaking, everything is so dry and brown. But on this little trial Garden plot was this cover crop and it was a legume and I won't say the name, right, but all you need to know is that it was so lush and so green and so vibrant and it had had zero irrigation, it had zero fertilizer. And right next to it, you see this plot of soil that's just barren and like lifeless. And yet right next to it is this beautiful, lush, this, this, this plant was like at least five feet tall and thick and this was huge.

Speaker 1:

For me, this was probably the peak moment of the trip. I didn't realize it when I was in it, but looking back it was like this moment was saying you really do have a message to share with these farmers, and the reason I say that is because the idea of cover crops is not new. It has been lost. And for these farmers that are reliant on the chemicals from these large corporations, if they could grow this legume, this cover crop, during the dry season and Put nitrogen back into their soil, put food and feed their soil during the dry season and then come back after it and plant Corn on top of it and then and then rotate this through like that is a way they could save their own seed and it is a legit way they can build their soil and grow healthy crops. And it's so Easy to teach that message when it's the dry season and you can show them a field of a lush green legumes, like a beautiful, beautiful field of green legumes that has had zero irrigation, zero fertilizer. It's an easy, easy cell and we actually showed one farmer to it. We showed one farmer a picture and and his eyes just lit up and he immediately understood. Because this field, right now he has no water. And he was talking to us about how difficult it is right now with no water during the dry season, and they can't grow anything but this cover crop. You can not only grow it, and not only does it take nitrogen and fix it in the soil, but you could harvest it, you could cut it and you could eat it. Humans can eat it, it's edible and it's really high source of protein for cows, for chickens. And you don't even have to do that. You can just cut it, laid on the ground and let it return back and feed the soil and plant corn right into that. So there's definitely more to come.

Speaker 1:

With this story we are just beginning and I really look forward to bringing you along and telling you more stories and keeping you updated on this. There's a lot of beautiful work ahead of us and and who knows, maybe there's even an opportunity for you to get involved as well. I'm going to drop a couple songs on the newsletter and in the show notes For you to go check out and listening to listen to. They've been a couple songs that have they. They are a couple songs that have really blessed Morgan and I um this week and wanted to share them with you, and Hopefully they'll bless you too. So, that being said, I do look forward to sharing more with you in the future. I hope you enjoyed this part one. Happy gardening you.