Today we’d like to introduce you to Zachariah Ben.
Hi Zachariah, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
Bidii Baby Foods LLC is an Indigenous baby food line created by farmers and new parents to increase access to traditional foods in early childhood. Bidii Baby Foods is a limited liability company registered and operating domestically on the Navajo Nation. Our mission is to reconnect Indigenous families with our longstanding relationship between earth and parenting. We believe that there is a direct connection between nurturing the land and nurturing our children. By understanding how to grow traditional crops and preparing them for young children we are actively dismantling systems of oppression and rematriating Indigenous foodways.
Co-Founders Zachariah and Mary Ben experienced food insecurity during their childhoods, with long distances to access fresh food, dependency on SNAP/WIC and use of processed foods to stretch meals and fill stomachs. When becoming parents during the height of the pandemic, Zach and Mary felt an urgency and responsibility to expand the capacity of their small 4-acre farm in both crop variety and overall production. During their first year of family farming in 2021, they set a goal to harvest and preserve the majority of their crops to feed their firstborn child during his first year of life. Family members saw their efforts and urged them to scale up and share these baby foods with the community.
At the time, Navajo Nation was experiencing the highest rates of Covid-19 mortality in the US. Significant supply chain issues impacted the entire country, but especially burdened rural and tribal communities who experienced formula and baby food shortages for months, forcing Navajo families to commute 50-70 miles in one direction to access food for young children. Additionally, about 30% of Navajo Nation residents do not have access to electricity, so preserving food via refrigeration is not possible for many. Zach and Mary knew firsthand that access to locally grown and traditional foods during early childhood was extremely needed across Navajo Nation and rural New Mexico, and that these foods would need to be processed in a way that could maximize shelf life for families without electricity. They got to work in 2021 establishing their LLC domestically on the reservation, expanding their farm plot and searching for financial resources to scale up production.
Now, in their 4th year of operation, Bidii Baby Foods produces several thousand pounds of traditional foods, marketing primarily for young children and sold to local schools, food banks, childcare programs and retail markets. Demand has consistently increased with each year, and is now putting pressure on Bidii Baby Foods to partner and aggregate with local farmers, as well as implement a “Farmer-in-REZidence” incubator program to support young, beginner Indigenous farmers on tribal land.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The median household income on the Navajo Nation is $30,759, roughly half the national figure of $69,021 (U.S. Census Bureau 2021a). Two of ten Navajo Nation households (20.9%, n=8,753) earn less than $10,000 annually (U.S. Census, 2021c). Significant numbers of families on the Navajo Nation lack access to even basic utilities and services. Thirty-two percent lack electricity, 31% lack complete plumbing, and 30% lack piped-in water. Cooking capacities are also limited, with 28% of families lacking kitchen facilities and almost nine of ten (86%) have no natural gas service for either cooking or heating (Navajo Tribal Utility Authority (NTUA, 2021).
Prior to colonization, the Navajo diet was both cultivated and foraged. Traditional Navajo foodways were severely disrupted by forced relocation and the deliberate destruction of crops and livestock by the US Army during colonization. Over this period the United States government distributed rations to the Navajo, including items like sugar, canned meats (“spam”), lard, flour and coffee. Although this intended to serve as a temporary “interim solution” until the Navajo could begin cultivating and producing their own food once returned to their homelands, many Navajo became dependent on this Government food ration, at the expense of their own indigenous foodways.
Following their signing of the Treaty of 1868 with the U.S. Government, the Navajo people returned to the land now constituting the Navajo Nation. Over time, allotment and the trust restrictions it imposed failed to create prosperous economies of individual farm proprietorships within tribal communities. Instead, patterns of pervasive co-ownership emerged on Indian allotments, with title to individually owned Indian land becoming progressively fractionated as initial allotments passed, typically to multiple heirs, through a formulaic intestacy process and the restraints on alienation imposed by the federal trust status became permanent. Today, the majority of these remaining individual Indian allotments are co-owned by numerous co-owners, and most of these reservation lands are either leased to non-Indians through a Bureau of lndian Affairs (BIA) leasing program or are not used at all. The BIA issues farm permits, known as land use permits (LUPs), to provide Navajo farmers the opportunity to farm a specified number of acres. In February 2017 948 LUPs were active, and 11,678 acres were permitted. According to the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) 25 Section 162, LUPs have time limits up to ten years or up to twenty- five years in cases of significant financial investment in the farm. The CFR regulations also require that the exact locations of these LUPs be specified by an appropriate method. However, these regulations regarding farm maps/locations and time limits have never been enforced.
Agricultural leases are regulated by farm boards for each of the five Navajo Nation Agencies. Despite having designated Tribal oversight, Navajo Nation residents still face inequities in accessing and operating land for farming and ranching due to inconsistent review, distribution or reassignment of land use permits. This lack of oversight deters and discourages Diné youth from taking up farming. “Diné farmers are also discouraged when, over time, farmland parcels are subdivided, reducing access to [irrigation] head gates, and no new head gates are installed. If a new head gate is not installed when a plot is subdivided, accessing water when it is needed may be difficult, especially if disputes arise.” (Raymond & Falk, 2018, p. 308) Issues like the current land use policies of the Navajo Nation and access to water for irrigation represent significant challenges for those there seeking to enter farming as an occupation. According to the U.S .Department of Agriculture (USDA) 2017 Census of Agriculture survey (U.S. Department of Agriculture, 2017a), there were at the time 16,129 farms and ranches established on the Navajo Nation. Of these, 11,901 were found to have less than $1,000 in economic revenue annually. Only 1,532 (9%) of all Navajo farms and ranches were found to have an economic size greater than $5,000. The majority of crops grown on the Navajo Nation were animal feed products. Of the 45,109 acres of farmland, 30,010 (67%) were used for animal forage, e.g., hay and haylage production, leaving 15,099 acres designated for corn, squash and melon production. Less than 20% (18.9%, u=1,243) of farms grew vegetables. The average per-farm market value of agricultural products sold across all farms was $5,435.
There were a total of 24,495 farm and ranch producers (individuals) on the Navajo Nation, of which 53% were women and 47% were men. The average age of farm/ranch operators was 59.5 years old, with only 2,231 (8%) of farmers under the age of thirty-five. Even more alarming for the future of Navajo agriculture, of this number only 591 were under 25 years of age (U.S. Department of Agriculture, 2017b). This survey report makes a compelling argument on the need to increase economic opportunities for small scale farmers, specifically among young/beginner and male- identifying farmers under the age of 25.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
Bidii Baby Foods LLC established the “Farmers-in-REZidence™” Farmer incubator program in 2023 in hopes of increasing the amount of young, beginner Indigenous farmers able to use farming on Tribal lands as a livelihood, foster healing and increase the amount of available locally grown produce and traditional/value-added foods.
The program uniquely supports under age 35 beginner Indigenous farmers with hands-on technical Indigenous method farming training, in addition to other essential programmatic requirements, including:
Bi-weekly mental health support (in person and virtual sessions with a local Native-owned and operated counseling service)
Access to an Indigenous financial advisor (through group presentations and 1:1 private financial advising)
Access to traditional medicine and ceremony (through contracted Indigenous herbalist and traditional Medicine Man)
Access to 2 acres of land to apply technical training and begin generating sales revenue
Direct mentorship and hands-on support to incorporate a business (on Navajo Nation or within NM, AZ, etc.) and open a business bank account
Matching to Agricultural Land Use Permit holders via sublease agreements on Tribal Trust land
Fiscal Sponsorship and Grant writing support
Bidii Baby Foods believes that technical agricultural training for independent farmers is not sufficient support for creating sustainable agribusinesses on tribal land. It is critical that young, beginner Indigenous farmers are surrounded by mental/spiritual health support, financial advising, business mentorship, fiscal sponsorship, grant writing support and land access.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.bidiibabyfoods.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bidiibabyfoods/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bidii-baby-foods-llc/posts/?feedView=all
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@BidiiBabyFoods
