Devon Pena (Professor, Department of Anthropology, UW)
"On Intimacy with Soils: Indigenous Agroecology and Biodynamics"

Devon Peña is a professor of anthropology and is also himself an organic and biodynamic farmer. He manages the Acequia Institute in Viejo San Acacio, Colorado. The 181-acre farm is located on traditional Caputa Ute homeland territory and is part of the historic long-lot (vara strip) granted to Dario Diego Gallegos, the founder of La Plaza de San Luis de la Culebra on the 1844 Sangre de Cristo (Mexican period) land grant. It is irrigated by two community acequias, the San Luis Peoples Ditch (1852) and the Robert Allen Ditch (1889), hence the name of the farm, Almunyah de la Dos Acequias. The almunyah is a rare supplier of artisanally-produced chicos del horno, the famous adobe oven-roasted white flint maize listed on the Slow Food USA Ark of Taste as an endangered and disappearing heritage food. The lecture will discuss the work at the almunyah focused on ecological restoration and reliance on indigenous soil biodynamic and permaculture [sic] practices while highlighting how this work has been informed by Dr. Peña's research in ethnecology and agroecology. Professor Peña may also address the work he did on the drafting and passage of the 2009 Colorado Acequia Recognition Law, which punched a hole in the Doctrine of Prior Appropriation.

For more information on the work of The Acequia Institute, please visit: www.acequiainstitute.org…