Gomier makes soymilk at the Plenty soy processing
facility in Punta Gorda. photo by Anita Whipple
Plenty became registered as a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) in Belize and has opened an office in Punta Gorda in the southern Toledo District. Actually, it's much more than just an office. It's a Soyfoods processing facility, and it's a sustainable agriculture, nutrition, environment, alternative technologies and community education center. It's headquarters for Plenty's work in Central America and the Caribbean. It's got a phone (501-7-22929), an address (Vernon and Front Streets, Punta Gorda, Belize), and e-mail (plentybz@btl.net).
Everyone driving, walking, bicycling or riding a horse into Punta Gorda goes past the Plenty office. It looks out over the Caribbean. To the east you can see the tufted forms of mangrove cayes (small islands or "islets") sitting between the coast and the barrier reef. To the southeast loom the mountains of eastern Honduras and Guatemala. It's two hours by ferry boat to Puerto Barrios, Guatemala which is 4 hours by express bus to Guatemala City. Late at night and at sunrise you can hear a chorus of howler monkeys emanating from the jungle a short way up the coast.
Gomier demonstrates making soymilk in a Belize Village.
The Plenty Office in Belize will be staffed year-round by Plenty personnel (Directors, Executives, volunteers and Ignatius Longville, AKA "Gomier" who runs the processing facility and is helping farmers who are trying to grow soybeans).
Plenty has a long history in Belize. Since 1986 we have been working with farming cooperatives and families who are seeking to bolster self-sufficiency and sustainability by learning organic farming methods and adding new crops for consumption and local markets. Soybeans fit into both these categories. Belize imports thousands of tons of soybeans every year, so there is a huge market for soybeans grown in Belize. Mayan farmers in Toledo who also raise pigs are spending precious hard cash to purchase pigfeed made of corn and soy. They see the potential of a bean that has an unlimited market, can provide milk and protein for their families, and a by-product that can be used to feed their pigs.
Chuck Haren (rt.) and Inocensio Sho, test soil pH
in future soybean field at Blue Creek Village.
Thanks to grants from the Atkinson Foundation and Food for All, both of California, Plenty is helping farmers in five Mayan villages grow soybeans. I spent a day planting soybeans with two six-member farmers groups in San Jose, a Mopan Maya village of about 300 families. Each of these groups is planting 1/2 acre in soybeans. As we hiked to their milpa plots through the rainforest, each farmer stopped to cut a six-foot planting pole from the bush. They told me they always cut fresh poles for planting because they're green and heavy which makes it easier to poke holes in the untilled earth for the seeds. The plots were covered in dried corn stalks that had been macheted down after harvesting. This layer of vegetation would remain to help fertilize the soil and keep the weeds down.
I had brought along a soil pH tester and we checked different sections of the plots. Readings were good, 6 and higher which is recommended for soybeans. No lime would need to be added to either plot. Then we dampened the seed and mixed in a dash of black, powdery inoculant that is added to the seed the first time an area is planted to stimulate the nitrogen-fixing process that soybean plants perform as they grow. Then each farmer filled his home-made seed bag, slung it over his shoulder and headed to the field with his pole.
The plots were on gentle slopes and the men formed a line across the lower end of the slope and began working their poles into the earth, poke four holes and toss three soybeans in each hole, moving side to side, back and forth to each other, greet your partner, dosey do, and slowly up the hill in an ancient, time-worn dance of planting that has taken place for thousands of years in agrarian societies around the world. All the while they are bantering and jiving in Maya while I snapped pictures and instigated much hilarity when I took my turn at planting in the Mayan way with my pole and bag and halting style. I was the new kid on the dance floor, and it showed.
Young Mayan farmers plant soybeans at San Jose.
This is an ambitious undertaking, but this is the scale and type of development that will be needed if we really do want to work on the most ambition project of all--that of changing and saving the world on behalf of our children's children and their children. |
