Climate Farming’s Indigenous Roots

“I wanted to be a farmer when I grew up,” Elizabeth Hoover, associate professor at the University of California, Berkeley, says. “But my guidance counselor — this was the ’90s — said it wasn’t a good idea. So I went to college for a very long time to become a professor who hangs out with farmers and writes about farmers instead.”

Hoover is of Mohawk ancestry and is an expert in Native American environmental health and food sovereignty. She notes that Native Americans often have a complex relationship with agriculture. “Many Indigenous communities farmed for generations, and then got interrupted by authorities who push methods that are not only abusive to the environment, but also to the people involved,” she says. “[Conventional farming]