Cassandra Garduño squints in the sunlight. Dirt smudges her pink boots. She gazes out over her family’s chinampa. That’s a man-made island garden.

The Aztecs (an Indigenous—or native—people in Mexico) first built up these islands. They used rich mud from the bottom of a lake. Today, the area is part of Mexico City.

Food grown on these islands has fed people for hundreds of years. But times are changing. The city expands. The produce grown here doesn’t bring in much money. Many families rent or sell their land for uses such as soccer fields.

On weekends, it’s common to see more soccer players in jerseys and cleats boating to islands than farmers tending their crops. The soccer fields stretch for miles along the canals that surround them. 

One landowner says farming the chinampas required lots of work and money. Her profits kept shrinking. So she built multiple businesses on her land. They include a soccer field for weekend games, a food stand, and a site for launching kayak tours for visitors.

But Ms. Garduño and others think it’s important to save the chinampas. Many species of birds and fish thrive there. The canals help cool the city. Plus, converting the gardens to soccer fields creates pollution. 

So people band together. They promote the traditional use of the chinampas. The group, Chinampa Refuge, encourages farmers to preserve their land. They follow ancient growing techniques. But they also try new ways to sell crops. That includes a tag that tells buyers the produce came from a chinampa. The tags explain how the gardens benefit the ecosystem.

You cause the grass to grow for the livestock and plants for man to cultivate, that he may bring forth food from the Earth. — Psalm 104:14

Why? Farmers around the world seek the most productive ways to grow food. The chinampas not only hold fertile soil. They also benefit the people and creatures around them.