Chris Destiche, before coming to the University of Arizona, Chris’s early career has been marked by service-work devoted to furthering social and environmental causes. Directly after receiving his degree in Anthropology with a focus on Latin American Studies from the University of Georgia, Chris worked on a food security campaign with the Public Interest Network. He then transitioned into conservation-work with the National Park Service, working on a native seed initiative in the Grand Canyon and exotic species removal in Yellowstone. He later joined the Peace Corps as an agriculture volunteer, where he worked cooperatively with Indigenous Mayan farmers to promote sustainable agriculture. Seeing first-hand the disastrous effects of climate change and globalization on rural Guatemalan communities and their connection to migration inspired him to pursue a degree in Development Practices.

This past summer, Chris returned to Guatemala and conducted transdisciplinary research in collaboration with the Mesoamerican Permaculture Institute (IMAP), an indigenous run and owned NGO whose aim is to foment food sovereignty, cultural preservation and biodiversity through the promotion of permaculture with local farmers. His thesis-work looks at IMAP as a case study in indigenous resistance against industrialized agriculture and examines the extent to which practicing permaculture allows indigenous farmers to resist the marginalizing forces of conventional agriculture and become independent of the system. Coupled with additional funding support, the grant he received from the Center for Regional Food Studies allowed him to justly compensate participating farmers for their time and knowledge during the interview phase of his research.