Hopi Tribe’s Michael Johnson Advocates Traditional Farming to Combat Water Crisis Amid Climate Change Challenges

Michael Kotutwa Johnson, a member of the Hopi Tribe, Arizona, is leading efforts to encourage more people to grow food with centuries-old practices that may hold more promise in areas where climate change and development are increasing use of water. Johnson, who grows about 11 acres of corn on reservation land in northern Arizona, believes that industrial-scale agriculture misses out on the lessons of Indigenous populations that have been farming in North America for thousands of years. However, the water crisis in the Southwest may revive traditional methods, he says.