Innovation

"What sustains life?" The missionaries inquired:"What preserves life is corn, beans, and amaranth," the indigenous wise men replied.

Agriculture was one of the main activities during pre-Hispanic times in Mexico. However, not every area in this country was appropriate for farming since water scarcity and arid lands prevailed in some regions, such as the Mixteca-Popoloca region in Tehuacan, State of Puebla. This need drove the inhabitants of such regions to seek new ways to store and care for that resource. Therefore, the Mixteca people were highly regarded for their innovative farming procedures.

Agriculture is still a current activity in Latin America. However, with the advent of modernization, agrochemicals, mechanization and especially genetic manipulation, the vision of sustainability kept losing its essence over time. This happened in the Mixteca region in Tehuacan, as the inhabitants saw their land as not very fertile lands and thus considered agriculture as a fruitless activity. This entailed great economic losses since the harvest could neither be consumed nor sold.

Weather conditions certainly discouraged the inhabitants of this land, and thus they looked for some other income-generating activities, such as joining government programs and/or selling handicrafts. However, these activities were not fruitful either, and this situation generated fairly significant economic backwardness.

A project led by Raúl Hernández Garciadiego and Gisela Herrerías and supported by an inter-disciplinary team was born in 1980 for the purpose of fighting poverty through sustainable regional development processes. The project was driven by a civil association called Alternativas y Procesos de Participación Social. ('Social Participation Alternatives and Processes', hereinafter called 'Alternatives') It also began with the "Water Forever" Program, which has been an ethical option for promoting and exercising human rights such as the Right to Water and Sanitation.

With the aid of their inter-disciplinary team and by following a non-formal education plan and using action research –which involved local farmers — 'Alternatives' created agro-ecological hydraulic works to regenerate water-collecting basins, preserve the land, and recharge groundwater "thus favoring a more productive agriculture, which in turn enriches natural resources for future generations."

'Alternatives' became a sustainable social enterprise. Their aim at providing "Water for All" positively impacts on other benefits for the community, such as the Right to Food. They also have the Quali Cooperative Group.

Quali consists of the following sectors:

• Agriculture: Quali has organic amaranth sowing and cultivation experts. They provide training and technical advice as well as supply both inputs and facilities to the farming households in each village. For the training, meetings take place attended by the community families organized into sowers' cooperatives. Subsequently, the cooperatives prepare nutritious food with the certified organic amaranth. Moreover, Quali guarantees crop marketing at a fair price. Amaranth serves as an excellent dietary supplement because it helps undernourished children recover their weight by only consuming 25 grams daily.
• Agro-Industry: Quali develops highly-nutritious food lines for which innovative production systems are required. Therefore, the Technology Center designs and manufactures specialized equipment for handling food. The machinery is very safe for workers. This project focuses on providing opportunities for everyone regardless of their social status, gender or different capabilities. Quali's commitment aims for their collaborators to feel happy and satisfied with their work. Therefore, legal benefits are provided and work is always paid.
• Marketing: Quali distributes their produce nationwide through a network of partners, which lowers intermediation as to ensure safe and nutritious food at a fair price. Furthermore, Quali looks after quality throughout the entire production process, from planting to customer care. This meticulous process has opened doors abroad, such as in European countries, where they have certifications for their organic produce as well as several awards such as the "Slow Food Award."

'Alternatives' and Quali have a positive impact on the community because the project has proved the process to be financially feasible, socially equitable, ecologically nature-regenerating and aware of cultural diversity. Quali's agro-industrial chain of amaranth food begins with the indigenous farming households who look after water and the land where they have been growing organic amaranth seeds selected a quarter of a century ago.

Moreover, Quali promotes their employees' human development and the creation of a more harmonious, fair and equitable society.

Inspiration

Raúl Hernández Garciadiego and Gisela Herrerías, both with similar experiences and interests, wanted to "do good to others because they were experiencing an unfair system around, and the well-off people were not devoted to help the poorest." After this principle, Raúl decided to become academically trained in order to help the disadvantaged and continue serving those most in need.

Raúl knew that for him to understand poverty, he had to live the experience of not having sufficient financial resources to be in the same vulnerable situation as the poor live through everyday. Therefore, when he was in high school, he asked his parents to live with no money to "feel, smell, and learn about poverty, because if we only read about poverty, it won't get to our hearts. If we put ourselves in a vulnerable situation instead and start to feel the consequences of being poor, that is, of not having money, not having food or shelter, that... this changes everything, as you get existentially connected with the subject, not only academically, but it becomes a vital issue incorporated into your own experience." He thought that by living within this context, he would find people suffering from poverty, but to his surprise, he found very good and valuable and generous people living in dire poverty. This generated a sense of justice and commitment which made him seek ways to help human beings who live in poverty. His vision was now devoted to learning how to teach and incarnate values that would drive society to fight shoulder to shoulder for improving the conditions and quality of life of the neediest.

After that experience, he had a much deeper contact when he could verify an abbot's premise that said: "instead of giving a dining room or food or lodging to those unwanted by society, you'd better invite them to participate and make them feel valuable people who are able to transcend in the world by helping others, helping altogether." This vision moved Raúl and Gisela to invite people to change their way of thinking and move from being submissive to being active and empowered for action-intervention, that is, for building something for others, for strengthening their life mission, and making them feel valuable again and no longer accept "institutionalized alms."

On the other hand, Gisela always found herself working as a teacher in a rural school with children and families. This passion for education came from constantly reviewing the Aguiluchos ('eaglets') magazines, which came from missionaries in Africa. Her academic training was easier to choose. She decided to study Pedagogy.

As for Raúl, after all he had already experienced, he was eager to face the challenges that society demanded. In order to work for the poor, he would have to prepare himself by studying multiple subjects such as Economics, Sociology, Anthropology, Business, Management, Engineering, etc. But in order to focus his profile a little better so he could apply for an undergraduate program, he looked for the advice of one friend. Raúl told him: "This is what I need to learn." His friend replied: "Start with Philosophy." Raúl could not understand this response because that subject was not included in his list, but his friend explained: "You're going to get all mixed up with so many concepts, and when you face a problem, you won't know which concept to apply because each one will tell you something different, and then you won't have a strong background to help you organize things in a hierarchy." Still not convinced, Raúl registered to study Philosophy, but to this day, he maintains that it was his best decision since these foundations have helped him recognize human beings and thus greatly value their work by respecting them as whole beings. Despite being immersed in rural development, Philosophy applies because "when you have to decide what is a fair price for a product or service, Philosophy will tell you 'How much is fair' and Economics will tell you 'How much it is in the market', but it won't tell you whether it is fair or not."

Overall impact

Another advantage of 'Alternatives' is the participation of both the interdisciplinary team and the farmers throughout the entire process. Thus a sense of belonging and accountability has been generated in the organization, especially with all consumers.

'Alternatives' and Quali projects have been working to provide service and well-being to others. Therefore, their mission has infiltrated all of their work and impacted positively on the quality of life of their employees and even the Tehuacan inhabitants.

Quali's cooperation model has provided a way to turn agriculture into one of the most productive activities. In addition, the great commitment of workers and the project itself has enabled a cultural rescue while the agro-industrial food chain has generated jobs for producing and processing food in regional industries. The higher income directly improves living conditions and brings back the dignity to the farming activity by promoting fair trade and ethical consumption.

On the other hand, the "Water for All" project improves soil quality with ecological regeneration due to the agro-ecological hydraulic processes. Thus losses from drought are reduced since land is watered to increase its fertility with organic nutrients. "The Quali group has benefited more than 1,100 farming households spread over 80 villages in the Mixteca region, where Mixteca, Popoloca and Nahua indigenous people dwell."

Business benefit

The 'Alternatives' Group has proven its success as a sustainable business model. The insertion of the promoters' team and their continuous presence in the Tehuacan region have made people trust them. Now they know that it is not a temporary program, and this allows actions to be planned so that their beneficial effects are accumulated progressively within a long-term vision.

By forming a group of cooperative social enterprises, they operate an agro-industrial chain of nutritious foods made with amaranth. This agro-industrial group creates jobs and aims to increase income and improve nutrition of farmers who only have low-quality seasonal lands. They support production by buying grain at a fair price, promoting amaranth consumption and improving farmland quality through ecological regeneration.

Households are the bases for production in each village's plots and cooperatives. Each group in this network of social cooperative enterprises receives technical advice and assistance, access to machinery and marketing of their produce. The Group's production chain benefits approximately 1,100 Popoloca and Nahua farming families.

They have managed to build 10,501 projects to supply water and ecological sanitation thus benefiting about 250,000 inhabitants. This shows that sustainable regional development is feasible and its support should continue.

The agro-food chain model by Quali's Cooperative Group has had a sustained annual growth trend of over 26% as opposed to the annual 2.5% GDP from 1994 to 2016, which is the period when Quali's amaranth agro-industrial chain has existed.

Thanks to the development of the agro-industrial and marketing chain, they achieved a surplus in their annual consolidated outcome in 2006. They have remained in the black for almost a decade despite the crises affecting the world economy between 2008 and 2014. This trend predicts a promising future of economic feasibility.

This sustainable business model has shown that a large sector of the population is subject to development rather than welfare benefits. They have shown that even under low-schooling conditions, limited natural resources and very precarious economic development, they can achieve sustainable development.

Social and environmental benefit

There are three main work lines:

1) The cooperative production of high-quality nutritious certified organic amaranth food made by Quali's Cooperative Group, which are transformed by the same cooperative in Quali agro-industry to promote fair trade.

2) The "Water Forever" ecological regeneration program to retain soil and water, and care for the environment and its biodiversity.

3) The Child Nutrition Program, which has developed a methodology to rescue thousands of children from nearby communities from malnutrition through an intervention of less than one year in each cohort. It entails supplying nutritious and balanced food, in addition to training families not only to adopt hygienic practices while preparing and consuming food in a balanced diet, but also to produce food themselves.

In order to create and provide orientation to these three operational lines and sustain them over time, the support of three underlying processes incorporating basic dimensions in each stage has been vital.

4) The "Water Forever" Museum of Water makes the educational approach visible and palpable. This educational approach has permeated the promotion of organized participation of households and groups in the work to undertake projects that enable them to face and overcome their shortcomings.

5) The economic cooperation among them, which has established adequate financing mechanisms for economic development as well as provided support to the operation and development of the cooperation model at each stage.

6) The legal, accounting, administrative, informational and training structure that has strengthened the social business structure of 'Alternatives' in order to lay the foundations for making informed decisions and meeting the requirements for having access to development-encouraging incentives.

Interview

Raúl Hernández Garciadiego, Director