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