“I love Clint Eastwood,” Prisco says. “John Wayne.” He's an agronomist for The Cusichaca Trust, an NGO in Peru that is rehabilitating ancient terraces and fortifying a way of life which many in Peru consider outdated. He's sitting in a general store in Pampachiri, Peru, drinking a beer surrounded by canned milk and oranges and clothing for sale. Outside people ride by on horses and shopkeepers keep dust down by splashing buckets of water on the dirt road. Sitting next to him is Andrea Dunlap, who is waiting to be joined by partner and filmmaker Hannah Heinrich. They are here In Search of Soil.

Prisco Iruri, agronomist, Nuñoa, Peru

Documentary Film
In Search of Soil is a lyrical documentary film examining the farming practices of campesinos in the rural highlands of Peru and follows the work of The Cusichaca Trust. Indigenous knowledge has very little value in a nation on the path of industrialization. Yet, in parts of the country they are farming beautifully and effectively following the same sustainable agricultural processes that their ancestors perfected before the time of the conquistadors. Without the terraces, called andenes, which modify vast tracts of steep cactus-covered slopes into arable land, prevent erosion and make the most of what rain comes along, the scarce resources that exist in the sierra would be even scarcer. While malnutrition and poverty are rampant, thousands of hectares of andenes lie abandoned and unused. What began as a mass exodus from the country to the cities in the age of Sendero Luminoso is now reversing itself, as people move back to the land of their birth.

In Search of Soil hopes both to capture and validate the fragile balance currently in existence, and to support the use of sustainable agriculture worldwide. Informed by the people they meet, Hannah and Andrea set out to plant, cultivate and harvest their own crops in order to experience the Andean way of life and discover whether any of its techniques are transferable to modern industrialized society.

 

photograph ©2006 Andrea Dunlap.