Tribes Create Their Own Food Laws to Stop USDA From Killing Native Food Economies

Jacob Butler checks on grapes in the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community garden. YES! photo by Tristan Ahtone.

From blue corn to bison, narrow federal food-safety codes impact tribal food systems. But advocates are writing their own food laws to preserve Native food sovereignty.

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BY TRISTAN AHTONE

 7 MIN READ

MAY 24, 2016

SALT RIVER PIMA-MARICOPA INDIAN COMMUNITY, Ariz. – Jacob Butler eyed a lemon tree—its bright yellow fruit nestled among thick green leaves and set against the blue Arizona sky—then checked on the tiny pomegranates and grapes in the garden as a black-striped lizard darted into the shade of a mesquite tree. In the distance, downtown Phoenix glittered under the rising sun.

”Our garden is a platform to perpetuate our culture.“

“We try to grow what’s been here for hundreds, if not thousands, of years,” says Butler, the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community garden coordinator, as he surveyed the land and the plants growing on it. “For the past 13 years we’ve been doing this, so it’s in the minds of the people now.”

Traditionally, Pima and Maricopa tribal members grew lima beans, squash, corn, and other vegetables; used mesquite trees for food, medicine, and other practical purposes; and relied on wild game for food. Today, about 12,000 acres of their reservation are used for industrial farming—cotton, alfalfa, potatoes, and other commercial crops—but, in the garden where Butler works, agriculture isn’t a financial boon: It’s a way to strengthen and cultivate culture.

“What are the stories that go along with this tree? What’s the story we tell that says when squash came to the people or corn came to the people? What are the songs that go with those things?” says Butler. “That’s what we incorporate here: Our garden is a platform to perpetuate our culture.”

According to Butler, tribal members once cultivated myriad varieties of beans, squash, and melons. Now, many of those crops have become extinct and their stories lost, and losing other heirloom foods would have irreversible effects on cultural practices.

Indigenous communities have been sustained by thousands of years of food knowledge. But recent federal food safety rules could cripple those traditional systems and prevent the growth of agricultural economies in Indian Country, according to advocates and attorneys. Of the 567 tribal nations in the United States, only a handful have adopted laws that address food production and processing. Without functioning laws around food, tribes engaged in anything from farming to food handling and animal health are ceding power to state and federal authorities.

To protect tribal food systems, those advocates and attorneys are taking the law into their own hands, literally, by writing comprehensive food codes that can be adopted by tribes and used to effectively circumvent federal food safety codes. Because tribes retain sovereignty—complicated and sometimes limited though it may be—they can assert an equal right with the federal government to establish regulations for food handling.

Recent federal food safety rules could cripple those traditional systems.

“Tribal sovereignty is food sovereignty, and how do you assert food sovereignty?” says A-dae Romero-Briones, a consultant with the First Nations Development Institute, an economic development organization. “You do that through a tribal code.”

Food codes and laws are basic legislation governing agriculture and food processing. Food codes are good things: They are designed to protect consumers from products that could make them sick or even kill them, as with a national salmonella outbreak linked to peanut butter in 2008, and, more recently, E. Coli outbreaks at Chipotle restaurants in 11 states.

Since 2011, food laws have become tougher, thanks to the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), the first major rewrite of U.S. food-safety laws in more than 50 years. Under FSMA, producers must take into account everything from the packaging and refrigeration of products to how crops are grown, all in the name of safety. These safety controls raise interesting questions in Indian Country.

Traditionally Pima and Maricopa tribal members grew lima beans squash corn and other vegetables. Today about 12000 acres of their reservation are used for industrial farming. YES! photo by Tristan Ahtone.

In many Native communities, for example, access to certified kitchens and state-of-the-art facilities is slim to nonexistent. That means producers often must rely on traditional knowledge to make foods that are safe for consumption. One example, says Romero-Briones, is blue corn products.

“That’s an industry that has existed for generations,” she says. “But if you want to produce it or process it in traditional fashions, you’re probably not going to be able to do that because you’re going to have to do it in a certified kitchen.”

Under FSMA, tribal food economies face two options: Assimilate by complying with federal law or keep tribal food products confined to the reservation.

“It’s one thing to say that we have to develop food and process food in certain ways, but it’s another thing to recognize that tribes have their own versions of food safety,” says Romero-Briones. “Tribes have been developing food economies for thousands of years.”

Another example of how traditional foods are impacted is buffalo slaughter. Dozens of tribes from the Dakotas to Oklahoma are engaged in buffalo management and harvesting. But those hoping to get buffalo products into markets outside of tribal communities often face big hurdles.

”Tribes have been developing food economies for thousands of years.“

Buffalo, for example, is considered an exotic animal under federal guidelines, says Dan Cornelius, with the Intertribal Agriculture Council. And that has repercussions when it comes to what the federal government will support.

“For domestic animals, USDA will pay for the cost of that inspector. For exotics, they don’t,” Cornelius says.

Inspections can run as high as $70 an animal, and all buffalo products must be processed in an FDA-approved facility. By implementing food codes, tribes could find alternative ways to getting buffalo meat inspected and processed. Cornelius says building an infrastructure that lowers costs would allow buffalo meat to get to market faster.

“Ultimately, is it a safe process? If it is, then how can you develop a tribally specific provision that still is ensuring a safe and healthy food but is addressing that barrier where there is a conflict?” he says.

So how do 567 different tribes with 567 different traditions, needs, and goals go about writing food codes specific to their cultural heritages? They call a lawyer. Specifically, Janie Hipp, director of the Indigenous Food and Agriculture Initiative, a legal think tank at the University of Arkansas.

Read The Full Article at YesMagazine

How the Soil Became Our Soul

How the Soil Became Our Soul: Fasting, Spirituality, and the Ancestors

Many of us think of the word “ancestors” as referring to ancient human-like beings, but if we go further back into time, we can see that our ancestors WERE ACTUALLY microscopic entities. And since our digestive system consists of trillions of microbes, we actually carry around most of our bodily “ancestors”…in our guts. Isn’t that convenient? So IF we carry our ancestors in our guts, then shouldn’t we be able to connect to our ancestors at any time…by just listening…to our guts?

Of course ! Let me tell you how this is possible…And what it means for our spiritual and physical health. Here I offer a different perspective on “Soul retrieval”. A potential bridge between modern science and mysticism…

Let’s say that each of those little micro-dudes carries a fragment of our soul-self, and within that individual fragment is a piece of the “bigger picture”, a piece of the Great Mystery. Each microbe plays a role in commandeering these bio-suits we call “bodies”, to think, feel and act in certain ways. And yes, just like humans, these bacteria each have wisdom, agendas, and tendencies. Some critters like candida have a tendency to be opportunistic and reckless reproducers. They rape and pillage the terrain in an attempt to spread and conquer, despite the damage to the greater organism. Much like the white man has historically done to the indigenous brown cultures 😉
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Reflecting on the above parallel has brought me to the idea that these so-called “beneficial bacteria” that have often been trampled upon by candida and other parasites, are VERY much like indigenous cultures that have been over-run by dominating/opportunistic cultures. They may not be as clever or driven to reproduce and dominate, but they are wiser, more connected to source and the lands where they dwell. They are more resourceful and they know how to live within their means, so as to not disturb the whole. They actually give back to the land and only take what they need to survive. They can survive disasters and famine, because they know how to live off the land without over-indulgent behaviors. These native bacteria, I call the “wise ones”, are the microscopic entities that connect us to the source of ancestral knowledge, because they have been with us from the beginning. The ones that came from the ancient soil also connect us to that soil, AND maybe they want us to return to the indigenous ways of living and remind us of our connection to a higher power. They are a part of a collective consciousness that is not competitive and exclusive, but cooperative and inclusive. Perhaps, they want us to create abundance, not exploit it. They break down our food and put nutrients back into our inner ecosystem, instead of robbing us of nutrients like parasites. Natasha Campbell-McBride refers to them as the little “house-keepers” of the gut because they clean up waste and use it for creating a fertile inner terrain.
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So how does fasting fit into this story? Fasting has been touted for many benefits such as increased immune function, increased mental clarity, improved digestion and enhanced healing. This is because, when we fast, it’s similar to hitting a reset button on our inner ecosystem. The opportunistic micro-villains that are dependent on high-carb diets of processed fast-foods, start to die-off. And with them and their pollutants/toxins finally under control, we can actually hear the subtle voice of our ancestors once again. The “wise ones”, the symbionts that are resourceful, can adapt to the lack of “fast-food”, by “living off the land” so to speak. They can live through starvation because they’ve been there before, in previous life-times. In fact they are the common thread between human life-times. If you take one bacteria that exists in your gut right now, you could probably link it to your mother, and her mother, and her mother, and so on and so forth. That one bacteria has passed on her soul, her DNA and “wisdom” for millions of years. Through many periods of fasting, when food was scarce. She KNOWS how to surthrive and she carries with her, the wisdom of HOW to surthrive.
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This “theory” is very supportive of how I actually FEEL when I fast. I have never felt SO connected to Spirit as I do when I fast, except for maybe when I was a little girl. Before my body was over-run by candida and parasites and before my gut was sterilized by anti-life pills (anti-biotics). I see now, why all the major religious sects practiced fasting as a way to connect to the Higher Power. And speaking of spiritual beliefs…many cultures still believe that ancestral spirits cause disease, how interesting is it that we have also come to the conclusion in our Western society that bacteria cause disease. Do you see the link? Bacteria ARE ancestral spirits!!! The soil IS…our Soul!
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In order for us to maximize our potential, as individual spiritual beings and as a collective evolving consciousness, we need to think in terms of how we can shift our inner AND outer eco-systems, from competitive battle-zones to harmonious, self-regulating entities. Let’s start with the “inner” ecosystem, specifically the gut, which is where most of our bacteria reside. If you read the Wikipedia article on gut bacteria this is what you’ll find…”The human body, consisting of about 10 trillion cells, carries about ten times as many microorganisms in the human gut. It is estimated that these gut flora have around 100 times as many genes in aggregate as there are in the human genome.”
That’s a massive amount of genes controlling more than we can ever imagine. So, when our inner ecosystems are over-run by opportunistic micro-dudes, we OURSELVES take on an opportunistic way of being and living. We ALSO become reckless and overly concerned with mating and spreading our DNA regardless of the damage we are inflicting on the greater whole. We BECOME the parasites and the out-of-control candida.
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This is why I strongly encourage intermittent fasting, for optimal spiritual and physical health. For the sake of the native micro-cultures, we MUST keep those rampaging, wasteful dominators in check! By cutting off their food source for just ONE day a week, you can start to recolonize your inner ecosystem with little indigenous beings. Ones that don’t just seek to PRO-CREATE, but also seek to CO-CREATE and co-evolve with you, symbiotically. By doing this regularly you will start to develop an inner collective wisdom, that will teach you how to thrive within your environment by downloading intelligence from the field that connects the past, present, and future generations. Think of fasting and eating live, bacteria covered foods as making an investment into our inner culture AND outer culture. AND by exploring these inner terrain modification techniques we are also learning to modify our outer terrains through practices like permaculture, where the primary focus is also on the microbial matter in the soil. We, ourselves, begin to SHIFT from opportunistic parasites to collaborative symbionts. We can stop supporting practices that “till and kill the soil/soul” and start building and giving back to it instead.
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I believe the quickest way to “normalize” our inner ecosystem is through intermittent fasting, whether on liquid foods (like broths, fresh juices, herbal teas, fermented drinks, or spring water) or ideally through dry fasting. For some highly acidic individuals, initially re-inoculating with ancient bacteria through ingesting fermented foods can hasten the process of overthrowing the “inner dictators” and supporting the indigenous bacteria. Try it, and you’ll soon find that these “wise ones” seem to carry with them a memory for the feeling of “home.” By increasing serotonin and other feel-good bacteria production in the gut, we can enhance our mood and cognitive function to be more joyful and more conscious stewards of the land. And just as we want to create bio-diversity in our outer ecosystem, we also want to increase diversity in our inner ecosystem to ensure resiliency of the whole…and we can do this by ingesting bacteria on a variety of wild herbs, in-season fruits and veggies grown in your own food forest or by friends, and by breathing in healthy soil bacteria (like M. vaccae) throughout the day by working the soil or hiking in Nature.

So with all that being said…I no challenge you to join me, by doing what I call “flinging poop” (the beneficial microbes) far and wide, inside and outside to connect to the ancient wisdom of our ancestors, which is transmitted through us more easily when we engage in regular fasting…or by just cleaning up our diets. Let’s all guide each other to the source, to the soil, where life began as microscopic entities. A feeling and a place that we call “HOME”…where it all started.

Alohaaaaaahaaaahaaaa!
Pachee

written by TheGiftofSelf