Reimagining agriculture: Indigenous practices and permaculture in Cache Valley
As environmental pressures increase, two gardens in Cache Valley are looking past John Deere Green and the agriculture of Fisher Price toys and country songs to imagine a more sustainable way to grow.
Darren Parry is the former chairman of the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation. He teaches a class at Utah State University and the University of Utah called “Indigenous Land Stewardship,” where students learn about how Indigenous people have interacted with the land over time and question the sustainability of the nation’s current agricultural system.
“My class really focuses on capitalism versus this traditional ecological knowledge that’s always been there and is thousands of years old,” Parry said. “Maybe we need to start paying attention to it. Not that we’re going to change one system, but what if we collaborated and put both systems together? Could we make a more sustainable system?”
Parry taught his students that indigenous plants are still around and are a sustainable, drought-resistant alternative to traditional crops.
Last year, Parry planted a garden at Stokes Nature Center with 31 varieties of indigenous vegetables, melons, beans, squash and corn.
“I really wanted to show the community what’s possible,” Parry said. “They saw 31 varieties of plants that they’d never seen before, but the food was delicious.”
Throughout the season, the garden hosted community weeding events, a community harvest and a dinner where they cooked the produce that had been grown in the garden.
According to Parry, there are a few key differences between modern agriculture systems and Indigenous practices.
“If you lived in this one space for thousands of years. I think you would have a pretty intimate knowledge of that land — what it’s capable of, what it’s not capable of,” Parry said.
Parry said this view contrasts with the modern commodification of land and its mistreatment for short-term profit.
“We looked at land as a relative, something that we need to nurture and care for,” Parry said.
According to Parry, modern monocropping practices and genetic modification conflict with Indigenous beliefs and practices. He emphasized the importance of reciprocity and relationship — one taking care of the land so it will take care of them.
These principles align with the USU Permaculture Initiative.
“Permaculture is a design framework for growing ecological culture, based on three ethics (earth care, people care, and fair share) and a set of principles. The term stems from a merging of permanent and culture, and permaculture is a mindset, a way of thinking and seeing the world. It is thus applied on multiple scales ranging from agriculture to alternative means of financial exchange,” wrote Roslynn McCann, USU Permaculture Initiative co-lead, in an email to The Utah Statesman.
In 2013, McCann started the initiative and created a teaching garden behind the Aggie Ice Cream building.
Sydnie Fonoti Utah State permaculture garden on Mar. 5.
“Over a decade later, the site is still producing food through a mix of perennials and annuals, and we offer monthly educational workshops in and around the space on a range of topics from perennial edibles to native bees,” McCann wrote.
McCann said people are welcome to visit the main campus garden and sample products as long as they know what they are eating, harvest ethically and treat the space with respect.
According to McCann, both large-scale and small-scale sustainability initiatives play an important role.
“If we can preserve agricultural land from development, incentivize growers to implement regenerative agricultural practices, and provide market outlets for the crops grown, the future of regenerative agriculture in Utah and the Cache Valley in particular can be very bright,” McCann wrote. “Without land conservation, incentives, and a clear market, I see regenerative agriculture mainly occurring at micro-scales, in backyard gardens and even the grass strips between sidewalks and roadways. Both scales are important, yet the potential ecological impacts of diversified systems increase significantly at larger scales.”
Parry emphasized the importance of inviting Indigenous voices into the conversation, suggesting that through dialogue, wisdom from ancient and modern practices can be combined to create a better, more sustainable future.
“The Hopi grow these huge, beautiful blue corn crops down in the middle of the desert in Arizona with no water and no irrigation, and they have lived that way for thousands of years. Do you think there’ssomething that we might be able to learn from those people?” Parry said. “We seem to think that we have all the answers, we know everything, and very seldom do we ever tap into that traditional ecological knowledge that’s been around forever, and I think it’s time we need to start doing that, especially in the age of climate change. The Earth is getting drier and hotter, and maybe it’s time we start listening to somebody that had been doing it for a long time.”
Parry plans to expand the garden this year. Information about future events can be found Stokes Nature Center website at logannature.org.