Traditional Agriculture among Mien People

On May 20^th, our Environmental Justice class had a guest speaker, Teresa Mares. She gave us a lecture titled “Growing Justice in the City: Urban Agriculture and Food Justice” which showed us the importance of local agricultural movements as a way of tackling the Environmental Justice problems and establishing food sovereignty. Among various agricultural movements which she explained, Marra Farm was focused in her lecture. Marra Farm consists of three different gardens, Lettuce Link Giving Garden, Mien Community Garden and P-Patch Garden. Since my interest is in Traditional Environmental Knowledge, I would like to narrow the forces down to traditional agriculture practiced in Mien Community Garden.

Check the details of Marra Farm: http://www.solid-ground.org/Programs/Nutrition/Marra/Pages/default.aspx (Solid Ground - Marra Farm Giving Garden)

According to the web site,

Mien Community Garden is tended by Yao Fou Chao and Mien community members with low incomes who practice traditional Mien agricultural techniques. All of the food generated goes to feed the families of the gardeners, Mien elders, and food banks in the International District and Beacon Hill neighborhoods.

Mien people in the garden are immigrants and refugee from Laos. They sustain their traditional way of agriculture in this land. The Mien tribe is also known as “Yao” and is one of the largest ethnic groups in Asia. It is said that more than 20,000 Mien populations are living in the US. Most of the Mien people are farmer and they plant corn and rice on the slopes. They believe in spiritual nature where spirits take care of the field and plant to yield a good harvest.

Here is an introduction of the traditional agriculture among highlander, Mien. They are often engaged in swidden cultivation. Although the system is criticized because it destroys nature through burning trees and plants, it is well adjusted to the environment and covers a wide range of activities including land selection, harvest and seed selection for the next season.

First of all, the farmers have sophisticated knowledge on site selections such as location, orientation to the sun, wind, elevation, soil type, and slope. They interact with nature and make the most of it in order for effective agriculture. Secondly, they have high ability of planting. They know how to space the plants out in a way which is appropriate to different soils. Thirdly, their cropping system is also remarkable. Although rice is the most important and staple crop for them, they sometime plant it mixed with maize and opium poppy. As a result, farmers may harvest food from a single field for at least six months.

In this way, Mien people have a lot of wisdom on agriculture and co-exist with their environment. It is wonderful that farmers are engaged in traditional agriculture in Mien Community Garden. It would be a great alternative way to gain food sovereignty.

Resoece

http://horizon.documentation.ird.fr/exl-doc/pleins_textes/divers09-03/30857.pdf

http://www.peoplesoftheworld.org/hosted/mien/