Soil Builds Prosperity From the Ground Up

Respecting the humanity and history of soil can help us grow a more resilient future for all.

Aidee Guzman, 30, grew up the daughter of immigrants in California’s Central Valley, among massive fields of monocrops that epitomize intense, industrial agriculture. Her parents were farmworkers, and despite spending their days producing food, they relied on food banks to eat.

The cognitive dissonance of these circumstances hit home when, in 2003, at age 10, Guzman first visited her grandparents and family still living in her parents’ hometown in Mexico. Here, in the small community of El Pedregal de San Juan, in the state of Hidalgo, Guzman says she was amazed by the rain-fed milpa system of growing corn, wheat, and squash that her uncles still maintained, using seeds that have been in her family for generations.