We are building a seed-to-table cooperative rooted in Indigenous Latine culture, land-based knowledge, and collective economic survival. Our farmers are not just contractors supplying a market; they are co-creators of a regional food system that centers culture, dignity, and mutual aid.

Becoming a Milpa Farmer means growing food with intention, in relationship, and in community.

What Is Milpa Farming?

The milpa is an ancient Indigenous agricultural system practiced across the Americas. While methods vary by community and region, milpa farming is defined by diversity, reciprocity, and regeneration.

At its core:

• Maize provides structure
• Beans fix nitrogen and nourish the soil
• Squash creates living ground cover

Together, along with “the five hundred cousins” (greens, herbs, medicinals, flowers, roots, and self-seeding relatives), the milpa provides a whole diet while restoring land rather than extracting from it.

Colonization fractured these systems, isolating crops into monocultures and disconnecting Indigenous people from land and livelihood. Practicing milpa today is an act of cultural continuity, resistance, and repair.

Who Is a Milpa Farmer?

A Milpa Farmer is a producer within the Aquilli Metzli cooperative who commits to growing within milpa principles and cooperative accountability.

You may be:

• A new or emerging farmer
• A backyard or small-plot grower
• Someone reconnecting with Indigenous or ancestral foodways
• A grower seeking cooperative infrastructure and community rather than isolation

Milpa Farming Standards

To ensure that our food system reflects our values, all Milpa Farmers agree to the following baseline standards:

• Grow in diversified plots (at minimum: corn and beans)
• Grow to organic standards or better
• Save your own seed, or have a clear plan to do so
• Participate in education around the history of milpa and Indigenous Latine agriculture
• Uphold cooperative values of accountability, consent, and Palabra (your word)

Ally Farmers

We recognize that access to land in Humboldt County is deeply unequal.

White ally farmers are welcome to grow milpas alongside us with intention and accountability. Ally participation includes:

• Educating oneself on Indigenous Latine agricultural history
• Actively supporting emerging Indigenous Latine farmers’ access to land, tools, and knowledge
• Fulfilling education and resource-sharing commitments as part of an annual contract

Solidarity is an action, not an identity.

Contracts & Commitment

Milpa Farmers participate through annual contracts, set each year by April 1st.

We are transparent about the reality:

• Farming is a gamble
• The cooperative commits to purchasing what it promises
• Farmers commit to growing what they promise

Due to funding limitations, farmer contracts may be limited in early seasons, with capacity expanding year by year as the cooperative grows.

Membership in the Cooperative

Milpa Farmers are encouraged to become full cooperative members.

Membership means:

• One member, one vote
• Shared governance through sociocracy
• Upholding cooperative values and Palabra
• Participating in quarterly meetings and cooperative education

Benefits of membership include:

• A portion of the annual harvest
• Voting power in the cooperative
• Seeds, tool sharing, and shared resources
• Family dinners, education, and community space
• Yes — cool swag, too

Why This Matters

Every day, trucks bring food into Humboldt County that could be grown here! By our people, on our land, for our communities.

Milpa farming is how we:

• Rebuild Indigenous food systems
• Create stable, culturally rooted livelihoods
• Keep money circulating locally
• Heal intergenerational trauma through land, labor, and time

We are not trying to scale endlessly.

We are trying to build something that lasts! 

Ready to Grow With Us?

If you feel called to this work, we invite you to begin.

• Read our Milpa Farmer Handbook
• Apply to Become a Milpa Farmer
• Contact Us with Questions or Collaboration Ideas