The dietary sovereignty of the Aymara people in the district of Vilquechico, Peru

Abstract

The Aymaras only have four months a year to produce their food; they use the other months of intense cold to produce some food-goods, crafts, and to engage in dialogue with the gods. Despite climatic adversity and having the worst soils in Andean territory, the Aymaras produce their food autonomously and equitably, and have even turned the Altiplano area into a laboratory and natural bank of germplasm and phytogenetics; they have domesticated more than 43 plant species, mastering a sophisticated technological system. This article describes the self-sufficient model of Aymara food sovereignty and explains how they produce healthy and nutritious food, with ancestral ecological technologies, as well as the cultural and worldview principles that are applicable to survival.