How to build a food sovereignty lab

Conexsus provides financial, technical, and mentorship support to cooperatives and small producers in the Amazon rainforest with the goal of shifting investment and resources to sustainable “bioeconomies” often managed by Indigenous communities. One such cooperative, Coopatrans, has been able to improve its relationships with farmers thanks to credit from Conexsus assuring payments can be made on time.

Diné College, the first tribally-controlled accredited college, provides over 1,300 students with opportunities to learn cultural traditions and the Navajo language, alongside traditional academic subjects. The school helps preserve the Navajo language, arts, skills, and customs by teaching it to younger generations. Learning Navajo traditions and language helps students make stronger connections with elders and they find the Indigenous philosophies that the school was founded on useful for overcoming obstacles, like finding ways to continue their education during the coronavirus pandemic.

The Mvskoke 4-H Ocmulgee Club, in collaboration with Oklahoma State University and MCN Food Distribution, teaches Muscogee (Creek) Nation students hands-on pecan tree planting and food sovereignty skills rooted in Mvskoke cultural tradition.

KRAPAVIS has restored 249 sacred groves in Rajasthan through a community-led model where villages share restoration costs and appoint local custodians. They've successfully reviving water sources, wells, and biodiversity while securing a 2024 Supreme Court ruling that protects these community-conserved ecosystems across India.

Heritage Growers, a 200-acre nonprofit native seed farm founded in 2021, is addressing California's critical shortage of locally adapted native seeds by producing 30,000-40,000 pounds annually of seeds. They have already helped restore thousands of acres with native plants, including the San Joaquin River National Wildlife Refuge (2,500 acres).

The Hawai'i 'Ulu Cooperative, a farmer-owned collective founded in 2016, has grown to nearly 200 members across four islands by providing guaranteed markets, stable pricing, and collective processing. Through this, farmers have revitalized traditional Hawaiian agriculture and created year-round supply chains.

Tribal colleges like Tohono O’odham Community College provide an accessible route for indigenous students to pursue higher education, with tuition waivers available for students from federally-recognized tribes. Tohono O’odham’s enrollment has grown from about 700 in 2019 to more than 1,200 last year, but funding for tribal colleges is in jeopardy due to proposed federal budget cuts.

The Coeur d’Alene Tribe is in the middle of a multi-decade effort to restore an important wetland that will make the local environment more resilient to climate change. Using tribal knowledge and expertise, they’re encouraging beavers to return, reintroducing salmon, planting trees, and building connections between people and the land.

Native tribes and First Nations in the Great Lakes Region are successfully reviving wild rice, a native crop that is deemed “extremely vulnerable” to climate change and lost much of its wetland habitat. The tribes’ restoration projects involve seeding lakebeds, monitoring water levels and quality, educating others on the importance of the crop, and harvesting it by hand.

Colleges like Oregon State University (OSU), are re-indigenizing the campus landscape to create a welcoming, healing space and stop the further erasure of Indigenous culture and presence on college campuses. OSU created an ethnobotanical garden, full of Native plants and crops, as well as an Indigenous center for students and staff to gather on campus. These gardens and Indigenous spaces help to show the community how Native plants can sustain people and OSU plans to continue improving its cultural offerings by installing Native signage around campus and holding Indigenous cultural burnings.