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Barefoot Seeds directly assists Tarahumara farmers by providing them with native varieties of corn and bean seeds, basic tools, and assistance with water resources and land protection. 100% of all donations go directly to building grassroots seed banks in the Tarahumara’s ancestral homelands. Drought, logging, and soil erosion have made subsistence farming even more difficult for the Tarahumara, and many farmers lack the resources to continue growing their ancient varieties of corn. Barefoot Seeds provides the native seeds and tools to enable Tarahumara to continue their traditional farming and running culture.
Easy Ways to Support Tarahumara Farmers
A donation of $35 provides a year’s worth of maize seeds for a Tarahumara farmer.
A donation of $50 enables a Tarahumara farmer to grow additional crops to support his family.
A donation of $100 or more can provide seeds and food for an entire Tarahumara community.
A donation of $200 or more will provide a clean water reservoir for an entire Tarahumara village.
A donation of $500 or more will provide a Tarahumara village with a complete sustainable food and water system: clean water reservoirs, solar pumps, irrigation, seeds, and tools.
A donation of $50 enables a Tarahumara farmer to grow additional crops to support his family.
A donation of $100 or more can provide seeds and food for an entire Tarahumara community.
A donation of $200 or more will provide a clean water reservoir for an entire Tarahumara village.
A donation of $500 or more will provide a Tarahumara village with a complete sustainable food and water system: clean water reservoirs, solar pumps, irrigation, seeds, and tools.
Barefoot Seeds is an all-volunteer nonprofit. All donations are 100% tax-deductible.
History of Barefoot Seeds
Barefoot Seeds is a non-profit that assists indigenous Tarahumara farmers in the Copper Canyons of Mexico. Since 2005, Barefoot Seeds has been working with Tarahumara to provide simple, sustainable, long-term food and water security. Will Harlan is the Executive Director of Barefoot Seeds and Founder of Barefoot Farm, an off-the-grid farm located in North Carolina. Each year, Will journeys to the Tarahumara’s ancestral lands to to provide native seeds and tools to Tarahumara farmers. He also shares the trails with the legendary, huarache-clad Tarahumara, running traditional ball races and ultra marathons through their steep, ancestral canyons. Mickey is the manager of the farm and seed bank of Barefoot Seeds in Copper Canyons, Mexico. Originally from Hendersonville, North Carolina, Mickey has lived among the Tarahumara tribe in Urique for nearly 2 decades. Mickey is essential in providing the native seeds and tools to enable Tarahumara to continue their traditional farming and running culture.
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Background of the Tarahumara
Written by Will Harlan
The indigenous Tarahumara people have lived in Mexico’s Copper Canyons for centuries. They scratch a living out of barren, rocky soil, growing ancient varieties of corn and beans. Most live in caves and tiny huts scattered throughout four monstrous, river-carved chasms—each deeper than the Grand Canyon.
The Tarahumara make their own clothes and sandals, which consist of used tire tread wrapped to their feet with leather straps. Through deep snow and blistering heat, rugged canyon trails and thorny sagebrush, the Tarahumara travel virtually barefoot, the soles of their feet thick with calluses. Women trek dozens of miles daily gathering firewood and food—often with infants strapped to their backs. Three-year-old children run barefoot through the canyons herding family goats. Tarahumara men plow fields with oxen and hand tools, and they hunt deer and other prey by literally running them to exhaustion.
As a result of their rugged way of life, the Tarahumara are widely regarded as the world’s best endurance athletes. They run hundreds of miles through the canyons in traditional ceremonies called rarajipari. Clans wager and drink corn beer as teams of runners complete circuits through the canyons, kicking a wooden ball the entire way.
The Tarahumara culture is defined by four core traits: speaking the native language, growing corn, running, and practicing korima—the Tarahumara version of karma. It is often translated as “the circle of sharing,” or a spirit of selfless giving that lies at the heart of Tarahumara way of life.
For centuries, the Tarahumara have lived self-sufficiently and mostly avoided foreign invaders. They escaped conquistadors by fleeing deeper into the canyons. As a result, their culture and traditions are still relatively intact.
However, logging, mining, and drug trafficking have ripped apart their canyons, and climate change and drought have decimated their farms and food. Although seed saving has been a tradition practiced for centuries, food insecurity has forced many Tarahumara families to eat their stores of seeds, leaving them with nothing to plant. Many Tarahumara are leaving the canyons to beg on city streets.
But most of the 50,000 Tarahumara have remained in the canyons. Tarahumara leaders don’t want handouts or outside assistance. They want to grow their own food and live in their ancestral homelands. According to Tarahumara leaders, seeds and water are central to their people’s long-term survival.
The indigenous Tarahumara people have lived in Mexico’s Copper Canyons for centuries. They scratch a living out of barren, rocky soil, growing ancient varieties of corn and beans. Most live in caves and tiny huts scattered throughout four monstrous, river-carved chasms—each deeper than the Grand Canyon.
The Tarahumara make their own clothes and sandals, which consist of used tire tread wrapped to their feet with leather straps. Through deep snow and blistering heat, rugged canyon trails and thorny sagebrush, the Tarahumara travel virtually barefoot, the soles of their feet thick with calluses. Women trek dozens of miles daily gathering firewood and food—often with infants strapped to their backs. Three-year-old children run barefoot through the canyons herding family goats. Tarahumara men plow fields with oxen and hand tools, and they hunt deer and other prey by literally running them to exhaustion.
As a result of their rugged way of life, the Tarahumara are widely regarded as the world’s best endurance athletes. They run hundreds of miles through the canyons in traditional ceremonies called rarajipari. Clans wager and drink corn beer as teams of runners complete circuits through the canyons, kicking a wooden ball the entire way.
The Tarahumara culture is defined by four core traits: speaking the native language, growing corn, running, and practicing korima—the Tarahumara version of karma. It is often translated as “the circle of sharing,” or a spirit of selfless giving that lies at the heart of Tarahumara way of life.
For centuries, the Tarahumara have lived self-sufficiently and mostly avoided foreign invaders. They escaped conquistadors by fleeing deeper into the canyons. As a result, their culture and traditions are still relatively intact.
However, logging, mining, and drug trafficking have ripped apart their canyons, and climate change and drought have decimated their farms and food. Although seed saving has been a tradition practiced for centuries, food insecurity has forced many Tarahumara families to eat their stores of seeds, leaving them with nothing to plant. Many Tarahumara are leaving the canyons to beg on city streets.
But most of the 50,000 Tarahumara have remained in the canyons. Tarahumara leaders don’t want handouts or outside assistance. They want to grow their own food and live in their ancestral homelands. According to Tarahumara leaders, seeds and water are central to their people’s long-term survival.