Kristen Krash: Regenerating the Land in the Ecuadorian Cloud Forest

Kristen Krash has set up a small farm called Sueño de Vida in Pedro Vicente Maldonado in Ecuador. She has a university degree in history, which shines through in her reflections and observations on what happens on the land. After working for a long time as a yoga teacher and practicing inner transformation, Kristen felt a call to be of greater service, by doing something on a larger scale. This calling prompted her and her partner to move from the United States to start a small agroforestry farm in the cloud forests of Ecuador. Kristen’s vision is to set an example of how to do regenerative farming in tropical ecosystems by reconnecting to the ancient, Indigenous ways, of living off the land and re-introducing methods that were “stolen” from the people during the green revolution in the 60s and 70s. She says that to do this you have to be able to create a sense of economic and environmental security for the people living off the land. Drawing on her insights about the history of collapsed civilizations, what Kristen means is that how we produce nutrient dense crops that can feed people is central if we do not want to repeat the mistakes of the past. She wants to make clear that farming based on grazing animals is not always the best regenerative solution for the land, rather what kind of regenerative systems that should be put in place are highly dependent on where in the world the system is located. In her location, she believes that a system built on syntropic agroforestry practices, where you combine heavy tree pruning practices with other locally adapted agroecological systems will bring remarkable regenerative results.

Editing: Magdalena Lindroos

Picture: Hanna Park