Navajo farming and entrepreneurship––for the next generation

Zachariah Ben is a sixth-generation farmer from Shiprock, New Mexico. He and his family founded Bidii Baby Foods. Using traditional Navajo food traditions, they provide healthy, nutritious, and locally-grown food to Navajo people, many of whom are living in food deserts. And, through entrepreneurship and traditional farming, they seek to heal generational trauma by fostering not only physical health but also spiritual connection to land and community––from surviving to thriving.

4'12 traditional Navajo farming principles 5'01 trauma healing 5'31 farming with the stars, singing, birth rituals as strategies for successful farming 8'05 sharing/trading seeds to keep biodiversity, human beings as seeds 10'35 the ritualistic culture at the root of healthy food 11'36 corn at the base of all their foods 12'50 traditional Navajo foods 16'07 taking care of elders 17'43 majority of the market for the baby food is their own people 19'05 resistance of commercialization 20'22 goal of investing across the community through their non-profit 22'53 developing a business on tribal trust land, with all its legal and regulatory issues 25'48 the insanity of bureaucracy and red tape 28'19 dealing with water, irrigation, water rights 30'15 difficulty of local leadership because they've dealt with hardship all their lives 31'08 what "bidii" means 33'53 they don't believe in a diet that subtracts food, but one that adds 35'07 a lot of people on the reservation don't have access to electricity and running water 37'25 Navajo nation junk food tax on the food that is the only affordable food for many 40'24 building up the next generations to be thriving, not just surviving--and healing 42'14 a healed self is a healed community 43'37 annihilating the monsters of anxiety and depression 46'55 Zach is a sand painter 48'59 now he sees the farm as the medium for his art 49'43 looking not for return on investment but return of impact 50'16 contact Bidii via social media