The milpa system in the Mesoamerican region: Microbiome as a human–plant–microbial continuum embedded in indigenous ecological knowledge

Abstract

The importance of the microscopic world in human and more than human health has been gathering momentum in recent years, particularly in human and soil microbiomes. Their potential to reconfigure human health, agriculture and ecologies is an exciting prospect which is also being exploited as a green capitalist enterprise amidst the scale and pace of destruction of the capitalist industrial system that operates globally. However, it is important to highlight that before the violent and genocidal establishment of the ongoing colonial capitalist project, an intimate relationship, a relationality forged between soils, plants, people and territories existed. Plant-soil microbial interactions in indigenous agricultural systems cannot be separated from specific human and ecosystemic practices developed over millennia. The milpa system in Mesoamerica is explored as a human–plant–microbial continuum because soil microbiomes along with their potential to reconfigure the current state of dysbiosis within these territories cannot be considered in isolation from the long-term relationalities from which they evolved.