Chickens haven’t been part of many discussions about tribal food security. Tribal producers, Intertribal Agriculture Council (IAC) technical assistance providers, and others gathering for IAC’s first-ever Poultry Fly-In in Fayetteville, AR, in mid-October are changing that conversation.
Reginaldo Marroquin, a Guatemalan-born agriculturalist who drew upon his indigenous roots to develop a poultry-centered regenerative agriculture enterprise in southern Minnesota, provided the keynote presentation during the Poultry Fly-In.
He explained how producers who are part of the Regenerative Agriculture Alliance (RAA) rear chickens in 1.5-acre paddocks designed to replicate the jungle environment in which poultry evolved. The growers utilize elderberry bushes and hickory nut trees as part of the “jungle” environment, thus generating additional revenue streams beyond the birds processed in RAA’s Stacyville, IA facility. (See April 5th blog: Regenerative Revolution is Rooted in the Guatemalan Jungle).
Just as Minnesota growers are mimicking the jungle environment with trees and bushes native to the Great Lakes region, Makoce Agriculture Development is adapting the model to the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. Nick Hernandez, founder and CEO of Makoce Agriculture Development, shared the organization’s eight-year journey with attendees at the Poultry Fly-In.
Nick said chasing buffalo is embedded in his genes. Still, he has learned to embrace the potential of poultry production and processing to significantly contribute to building food security for the Oglala Sioux people.
Laughing, he told the Poultry Fly-In attendees, “I’m now known around the area as ‘the chicken guy.’”
In 2016, Nick connected with Reginold and the Regenerative Agricultural Alliance and quickly recognized the adaptability of the “Tree Range®” poultry model for the Pine Ridge Reservation. Under Reginold’s mentorship, Makoce Agriculture Development is creating a model that incorporates choke cherry bushes, along with buffalo berry, plum, and oak trees, to create a chicken-friendly habitat.
At the heart of this system is an 8’ x 52’ foot mobile processing unit anchored to a permanent site and being readied to serve as the first USDA-inspected poultry processing facility in all of Indian Country. Flower Hill Institute Regional Director Chris Roper is working with Nick to upgrade the facility and develop additional infrastructure needed to gain USDA inspection.
As the production paddocks come online, Makoce Agriculture Development plans to process 135,000 birds/year, primarily to feed Oglala Sioux citizens. The school lunch program, feeding 7,000 students attending schools on the Pine Ridge Reservation, requires the protein equivalent of about 119,500 chickens each year alone. Additionally, the protein needs of the 50,000 area residents equals roughly 855,000 chickens.
In the short term, though, Makoce Agriculture Development is supplying local families with chicks to raise using the chicken tractor model, where a portable enclosed “house” is moved across a pasture daily. Each family can use the facility to process their birds, which they take back for home consumption.
Poultry processing is part of the larger Makoce Agriculture Development vision of creating a commercial kitchen, café, coffee shop, and other areas that can serve as a community gathering place and educational center.
Nick and his team are proving that--if a concept hatched in the jungles of Guatemala can thrive in arid western South Dakota--it holds promise for other tribal communities across North America.