Our new supplier of heirloom Mexican Cónico Cremoso corn this year is a cooperative from Mexico that sources Mexican heritage crops with a commitment to native small-scale family farmers in Mexico, with a commitment to the farmers, flavor, and biodiversity.
Their partner farmers cultivate a variety of heirloom corns that have been preserved through generations. They use agricultural systems that prioritize biodiversity, such as the milpa, to nurture these unique crops and the land.
Milpa is a field for growing food crops and a crop-growing system used throughout Mesoamerica, especially in the Yucatán Peninsula, in Mexico.
The word milpa derives from the Nahuatl words milli and pan. Based on the agronomy of the Maya and of other Mesoamerican peoples, the milpa system is used to produce crops of maize, beans, and squash without employing artificial pesticides and artificial fertilizers.
The land-conservation cycle of the milpa is two years of cultivation and eight years of laying fallow.
In the Mexican states of Jalisco and Michoacán and in central Mexico as well as Guanacaste Province Costa Rica, as an agricultural term milpa denotes a single corn plant.
The cooperative we work with cuts out intermediaries, and fosters long-term, trusting partnerships with farmers, their families, and their communities.
They buy the surplus heirloom corn from these farmers and their families, who grow these crops for their own consumption.
By working this way, they make sure to not deprive them of their sustenance and ancient food rites. They understand that these farmers are the stewards of Mexico’s biodiversity and their communities are life-supporting ecosystems unto themselves.
This cooperative actively listens, observes, and stands hand-in-hand with their partner farmers as they care for their land and their people.
By using heirloom open pollinated corn we believe the real corn flavor comes through. The corn is grown without using chemical fertilizers and pesticides, but as an added assurance we have lab tested samples from the farms, with no trace of GMOs or Glyphosate found in the batches we tested.
They honor the cultural practices and rituals they’ve passed down through generations, and learn from these powerful preservationists every day.
They help farmers calculate their total production costs and then mutually agree on a price that covers these costs and enables a net profit.
On average, farmers within this network receive 43% of the final selling price.
Healthy Traditions has sourced a Cónico Cremoso (cream color) native variety of corn from San Felipe del Progreso from the State of Mexico, commonly known as Edomex (from Estado de México), to distinguish it from the name of the whole country.
