This is basically natural aquaponics. I love it, minimal effort for maximum produce. While also sustainable and organic.

I did some archaeological research on the collapse in Chinampa agriculture from the prosperous Aztec times to post-colonization times. One of my main findings was that the Chinampas system required a high degree of political orchestration to function. There is evidence for times of high and low use periods during Aztec power, and they can be correlated with times of strong and weak governance. When the Spanish came in, the Aztec governance system was of course decimated, and therefore the Chinampas system greatly receded. The reason they can be so product is from a highly organized and efficient labor system with a common goal and greater vision. The Area Tierra program seems to be filling in this gap, providing a modern and integrated structure for the Chinampas system to once again rise to prominence as an incredibly efficient, abundant, and ecologically diverse system that supplies food to the residents of Mexico City.

Having municipal wastewater flowing into the canals might slowly kill the chinampas. It is not the pathogens that I think we should be afraid of, but inorganic pollutants like salts and heavy metals. Unlike organic effluents these things don't decay easily and will accumulate continuously. Sitting in a basin also means that there are no outlets to flush them out.

I visited Xochimilco in 1996 and was blown away by the system. Since then I returned a few more ocassion to fully absorb the living systems. This encounter has helped me to incorporate the principles into the ecosystem restoration initiative on the island of Borneo, in the tropical region. So much to learn from the Chinampas.

I always felt that chinampas and xochimilco should be expanded and become a cultural landscape with farmer markets. Mexico should take advantage of its pre European agricultural methods and implement many cultural landscape throughout the country.

This topic is so fascinating! Goes to show the ancient peoples knew more than we give them credit for. Meanwhile modern agriculture leaves the soil drained of all nutrients and dry.

I've been around the world and it breaks my heart how many Americans are utterly ignorant of how interesting, vibrant, and mystical Mexico truly is!

“Water management is a history of bad decisions.” The man nailed it!

we have our garden plot in a boggy area right next to a stream in southern Wisconsin - water is at the soil surface until early summer. we built a chinampa-style garden (raised areas for growing, lower areas in between) and it has worked AMAZINGLY. thanks to another youtube creator for introducing me to chinampas a few years ago, and thanks to you for deepening my understanding!!

This system should work well in Florida and Mississippi.

There's a similar system in the Altiplano, the highlands around lake Titicaca at 3,800+ meters over sea level. They're called Waru-warus or Camellones. The water moderates temperatures at night and the mud is used as fertilizer. Very old camellones are being reused

This systm reminds me of our ''Polder''system we have in the Netherlands, where we claimed parts of the sea to use for agri culture, with simular canals and some also use willow trees, every year big tractors dig out the canals to feel up the land. where we graze alot of cows on freshly grown grass. You might take a look a dutch agriculture for a video. You chinampa video was very educational! keep up the good work. Kind regards form the Netherlands

Spectacular system. I'm so impressed. When I was about 3yrs old my family did a boat tour on the Floating Gardens of Xochimilco. It is one of my earliest memories. I reached for the lilies and fell out of the boat... but mom was ready and immediately yanked me to safety. How awesome to connect that memory with this Ag system.

I was devestated the last time i went to Xochimilco, so much of it was urbanized. It should be a place where the agricultura and axlotl thrive..... the government should protect it by relocating and getting housing for the people living in poor conditions there and restoring the area, but Mexico is plagued by corruption. I just hope that one day it will get the protection it deserves

Believe there is a similar, indigenous South American version where they used canals (with dug out ditches) to help moderate temperatures and protect plants from nightly freezing. These ditches create traps for the cold air while allowing the water to radiate heat to the plants at night. This was studied and found to be more productive than 'conventional' agriculture and the farmers were finding it more profitable as well as providing more employment for the locals. It was a big win-win. Think this would be great in New Orleans, for rebuilding instead of dumping. That's so wonderfully lush. The beautiful boats are great, too. We had black soil like that growing up in most of the places where I lived. It's good soil. We need to also preserve and rebuild the soil that we have. We need to convince more farmers to do no-till *with cover crops.* Notably some insurance companies will not insure a crop if covercropping is used. We need to eliminate that loophole. We need to de-complicate insurance requirements for federal monies for farming...

Great video. It really hits home how we modern people know very little about real farming. We can do mono crop farming but we are unable to think beyond chemical use. I do dry farming in southern Arizona. Not many people are trying to do dry farming here because it takes a lot of thinking and labor. Most people buy a green house and use lots of water and chemicals to make their plants grow. Unfortunately, Arizona no longer has the water to support this kind of resource intensive farming. I hope that we all can learn a better way to grow food before it is too late.

They still exist?? OMG, Andrew you're a legend for making this video, and Lucio for reviving them. And all the people who helped. Thank you!!

As a Mexican this one sparks joy... No he tenido la fortuna de acudir a esas tierras ancestrales, pero como maestro de biología de secundaria, uso a Xochimilco como el ejemplo de arquitectura sustentable y aparte ahí residen los famosos ajolotes, los cuales son endémicos de México.

As a Mex American I am in love with our indigenous history and was lucky enough to visit the Chinampas a year ago. The knowledge of our ancestors is immense, thank you for sharing our culture with the rest of the wider world. I love this, we must protect the chinampas for all future generations

I have also tried to built a Chinampa like system, but at a very small scale My garden gets flooded during the rainy season, and I am unable to grow anything during that time, so I dug out a trench and deposited the soil some the both sides of the trench, besides this, I can also take advantage of high ground water table in my garden Now I have planted Turmeric over the raised beds and Lotus in the trench, and as the waters will rise during the monsoon season, I will release native catfish into it

I love learning things about Mexico I feel like we don't know enough about our neighbors to the South

Beautiful, inspiring! Mexico it’s so rich of true wealth.

Damn thats just huge aquaponics we need this all over the world

Could have mentioned that the aztecs had pluricultures, 3 or 4 plants on the same spot, like beans, squashes, and tomatoes. They also ate the insects and sheets of dried algae like kelp leaves.

I am surprised that you didn't talk about the three sisters (the three main crops grown in these chinampas). Super sophisticated techniques in such a lush culture. I think about these chinampas a lot ever since I learned about them a decade ago or so. So impressive.

I wonder if a derivative of this system could implemented in the mississippi river valley as a way to exist with flooding in a controlled way

I've lived around the Xochimilco area for my entire life but never had any contacts nor plans to involve myself in any experiences around the place. I didn't know there was a serious labor involving maintaining the place, keeping these ways of agriculture, reintroducing flora and facing modern problems but the fact that there's experts trying to help, like the one guiding you over the place was something very good to know. Not much is said about this in Xochimilco, the tourism just promotes sightseeing in the chinampas and historic explanations in the tour guides but there's not much interest about their present roles or goals like in this video. Great work of photography, illustrating and narrating too!! Looking at the Arca Tierra project you linked in the description, honestly it looks very awesome!! Deberas que necesito ver alguna forma de apoyar lo que se hace acá con los proyectos locales poquito a poquito 😅 gracias!!!

I had black soil like that in my yard in Michigan we tried growing tomatoes once in the yard next to the garage and they went completely wild 2 plants turned into 4 boxes of tomatoes and we still had some that rotted on the plant.

Andrew, your videos fill my heart with hope for the world like nothing else that can be found on mainstream and online media. Thank you. Hope was getting harder and harder to find. 🥰👍🙏

Excellent, just excellent video and info. The agri-engineering on display, made hundreds or thousands of years ago no less, is truly a marvel.

As a permaculture and plant geek, I gotta say this is one excellent inspiring video about chinampas.

Thank you so much for explaining this and documenting it. Makes so much more sense. The layers. The diversity. The inclusion. No wonder, no wonder it works.

I am from Xochimilco, México city, saludos y un fuerte abrazo .

same as Zamalek island in middle of Cairo it was a permaculture paradise in the middle of Cairo but the oligarchy built a city over this paradise you have a look at major trees at the corners of this city

Stellar work Andrew, your best video yet, also, being from Mexico I was happy to see you here. If you ever need a camera operator, I'm happy to just tag along to know you and help you in the mission.

Thank you, Andrew for your world class work. I'm so grateful for your valuable time iniciating the PDC course (6/21) and have continued to learn from you as I develope our forest garden at home in Costa Rica. Passionately seeking to learn more.

The canals are probably the reason the Axolotls evolved at all. It's thought that they evolved to not go through metamorphosis to a salamander because the canals were such a perfect habitat for them that becoming terrestrial was a disadvantage. As long as they stay in their aquatic form in the narrow canals, they are completely safe from aerial and terrestrial predation, they are protected from the elements and there is no more or less available food.

This is absolutly impressive, they could create a system that feed them. I am so amazed of this technics of managing water and fertile soil. I wish We can implement this in our aride country NIGER, we do have a lot ground water but lands are unfortunatly facing erosion day by day.

Yeah, I'm gonna need way more videos on these. This is too cool. I live on a forested hill in the PNW and want to figure out how to do something similar, but the hill makes this challenging. Maybe smaller pools with little waterfalls?

Just came back from Xochimilco, it’s spectacular and also a great legacy. Sustainable ways of living are possible❤ 🌱

This is the best information I've seen on chinampas, Andrew. Your video was beautiful in production values and your drawings and explanation really brought to life the visual material collected at this excellent site. I'll be re-watching to fully take it all in. Thank you.

I visited Xochimilco just last week! I was on one of the boats like at 16:14, and it was an incredibly neat experience. Thanks for diving deeper into the agricultural benefits of this system.

this is truly incredible. it's the epitome of giving to the land, not pillaging and not destroyin. permaculture at its finest. this is how agriculture should be. trees not being cut down, but instead used to further cultivate the land, no monocultures, keeping animal habitats intact, thus promoting biodiversity; etc.

I read that up to 85 percent of Mexico city land is used for agriculture. I was amazed by the extent of agriculture here. We have Xochimilco but also all the land surrounding the city. No wonder there's plenty of food

Many parts of central / south Florida seems like a suitable area for this type agriculture.

6:40 he is totally right. Plants actually soak up water only due to their ability to "sweat" it out. It's called transpiration. "Water is necessary for plants but only a small amount of water taken up by the roots is used for growth and metabolism. The remaining 97-99.5% is lost by transpiration and guttation."

The Chinampas design is way way more advanced in thinking. Amazing man!

That's fascinating, the Astecs were really blessed by the local geography. I wonder we could replicate this design somewhere in France.

Same happened in the netherlands. All farmland is surrounded by moats, rivers and ditches

Spent my birthday on a boat at Xochimilco. Its magical, timeless. Something truly special

That is such a cool permaculture system, who would have known?, or that Mexico City was once a lake, great work! I must admit that salamander does in fact look godlike, strangely enough…🤣

beautifully shown... yes the situation is the same everywhere... it's like cutting down the branch you are on...

Thanks Andrew, I had planned a Chinampas in my design for a swampy area. I’ll be adding the filter system at the end of the channel. It’s hard to leave the farm but a trip to Mexico may be in the near future!

Until I watched this Film I had not realised that this system was anything other than of Historical interest. How wrong I was! Having studied Agriculture in Scotland in the 1970s, I can honestly say that I was more than impressed by the innovative and incredible system started so long ago, but still surviving/producing today! I can honestly say that I can see the benefit that developing and maintaining such systems can have for both mankind and nature in suitable areas.

I was able to go-to Mexico City in '82. We took a boat tour of the floating gardens.

Proud to say my people used old age hydroponics back in the day. Brilliant folks.

What a beautiful asset for Mexico city. And I had never heard of it. I had heard of Montezuma's floating city but I thought that was for defense.

the amount of effort you put into your videos is insane. Best videos out there on whole KZfaq. come to the Netherlands and become minister of agriculture please. we have a very weird one and we could use someone with bright innovative ideas that has proven their worth.

That was a superb presentation. Congratulations and thanks to Andrew, the film team, Lucio and the farmers. What beautiful and productive agriculture. Loved the way they sowed the seed. I am going to treat my garden with more respect because of your insight and inspiration. You should be very proud of what you are doing.

after all this time i spent on youtube, idk why it took so long for them to show me your channel im digging your videos, amazing work thank you for that

Would be amazing if the chinampas keep growing as the city sinks. I want to see this place. And build my own chinampas. Hopefully a whole community of farmers someday.

Interesting! I have been looking perhaps buying land (wetlands areas) near the St Johns River in Florida as a permaculture residence. I can imagine the same principles may be used?

Water in the channels also does thermal regulation, especially reducing morning cold.

Loved this so much! And yes we have so much to learn from these ancient cultures

Just over here thinking about how much important knowledge we've lost to the ages.

I wonder if this system could be utilized in Florida, seems like it would be ideal for the swampy landscape?

I love this! This is my first time learning about this way of farming.

Awesome information! I was motivated by xochimilco in 2011 and built an aquaponic system in my basement that I used to grow leafy greens, beets, carrots and other vegetables for years. It was eye opening how much faster crops grew with the increased rate of air, water and fertilization by the fish feces. Thanks for sharing!

I really like this... one thing I would really, really like is the tours for city folk... I believe that should happen in the states, the farming methods are truly fascinating, and would make great tourism sectors in states with little else; like Nebraska, or the Dakotas... teaching people about where there food comes from I think would be a great way to solve some modern problems.

Thx amigo! Amazing info about Mexican permaculture. Congrats!

It just brings home the fact that, no matter what the type of sustainable agriculture, it can continue when people are conscious -as individuals and as a society- that their livelihoods depend on it. Whatever your status in that society, you have to eat. You may be wealthy, but if your wealth is inseparable from the sustenance of the society that supports you, know your limits. And the more you put into it, the more you prosper yourself. It’s symbiosis. In a cash economy, as soon as control over the land falls into the hands of people who have no real connection to it, the value it holds for them becomes divorced from what it produces. The Spaniards were after gold; today it’s money in all forms. The ones making the greatest profit from colonies are usually the ones who may never even have seen those colonies or known their people. What was the “New World” to Queen Isabella beyond a source of gold to fund even more rapacious colonization? What value does protected land hold for a real estate developer? Or to the crooked politician who illegally allows the developer to destroy it for the profits gained from the apartment complex he/she builds on it? Nothing but cash, or power through cash, to gain more cash. But it’s an illusion. When you’re destroying a system for the cash it can bring you, it’s basically parasitism. The parasite can live well for a while but it must end - it either completes its life cycle and dies, or it lives on until its host dies, and then it dies as well. This is not just a blanket “capitalism is bad” statement. But there must be limits. In the US, millionaires once payed a very high tax rate and that helped, but we were still ripping through our natural systems, mining them for immediate profit, as if they were infinite and their destruction bore no consequences. This is the battle we’re fighting today; it’s a battle of mindsets, between that of symbiosis or parasitism. We may not have figured out how to right the wrongs and get back to sustainable symbiosis, but we have to, because the effects of economic, and consequently environmental, parasitism are becoming so clear that they leave us no choice.

Fun fact, México city was connected through canals like Venice. Commerce and transportation was made by boats in the main canals. It connected the whole city with the centre and it was like that for hundreds of years. Some streets and avenues still have the names and shapes of the rivers and canals that once existed

Mind blowing farming system

Yes yes yes! I love these! I've been dying to see more detail about them ever since I learned.... There are so many different ways to grow things, it's so inspiring

I can’t believe that foreigners value way more the treasures we have in our country that ourselves, but that’s always been the patterns we follow, in Mexico people believe other countries are way much better than Mexico but we actually have so much that our own eyes blind us to see the richest we are.

Awesome video. I took my backhoe and dug too deep trenches to try and collect a little bit of rain we get. I took the post hole digger and dug holes down each side of the bed and packed it with organic matter. I hope to grow a food forest this summer. That is a food forest :-)

This is what I imagined as a young visionary about a productive ecosystem and food production. A system of smaller and bigger water channels which give life to all the soil around it.

Thanks for this excellent description of Chinampas. Great video all around!

It is so amazing to finally see this because we spend a part of every year in school on ancient C. American cultures and this system is a major part of what we hear about and as an adult i've spoken on it with others - BUT I FINALLY have gotten to see it and if i went to Mexico City this would be a must see for me! It was like aquaponic farming in a way but 100s of years before this supposid modern farming system!

Thank you for bringing this video to us! Excellent as usual.

This is my favorite system. It's like a wind up garden.

Really nice! Thanks for creating this video and making this knowledge and this place available to us all!

An amazing system. The old ways are still the best

Now i wish to visit this magical place

Not exactly reclaimed earth but I believe they also had floating farms in Laos.

Great video Andy! Best video I've seen on the Chinampas out there.

May I ask you to post a list of songs used in this video? Everything about this is amazingly interesting, this is something everyone should know about, but even the music you used is fantastic!

The best agriculture video I had ever seen.

As I look at this, it occurs to me that crop & livestock farmers in Amazonia could really learn from this type of agriculture by reintroduction of trees. I heard a statistic that Australian farmers that reinstated trees onto 25% of their land found a corresponding 30% increase in productivity & given that the region is fast becoming a dry savannah, tree reintroduction is urgent if they wish to be able to continue farming there, quiet apart from all the other obvious benefits.

This is awesome. I'm an OSU student and I see that you taught a permaculture course there. I'm hoping you do another one so I can take it. Do you think a version of chinampas would be possible in central Oregon with either the Deschutes or one of the lakes?

Thank you for making the doc I always wanted! Totally a favorite regardless of how short it is. Definitely have Xochimilco on my bucket list.

learning something new chinampas the video delved into many levels loved the history

I always enjoy your videos but I love this one!

I had no idea that the Chinampas still existed! they represent exactly what I was talking about in "The coming GREAT real estate investment opportunity" Live stream, and also "Hill Houses", to a certain extent - although that focused more on what we can do with rivers and plains. On a small, backyard scale, we can gain the benefits of water retention and edge effect of agroforestry putting channels UNDER the pathways, see "Water for Every Garden". I absolutely LOVE this stuff, and learn more and more every day.

This is really enjoyable to see. I love transformational videos like this. I watched a YT video on a young man cleaning up the polluted rivers and ponds in India. After the cleanup the fish thrived in the clean water. And native plants and animals surrounding these bodies of water also came back.

Thank you for making the video! Saludos desde México!

Please, what is the music at the end of this impressive video? Live long and prosper, y’all.

Wow! so beautiful! Well done! Chinampas are definitely the most effective *local* farming system -- where you have water and nutrient-rich mud from the bottom of the lake within meters, instead of transporting it from who knows where. I wonder if there's some project of farming on floating structures, where you can water the plants with nutrient-rich muddy water pumped from the bottom of a lake. Then you don't even need to have a shallow lake to build a structure for chinampas. But as you said, you could also easily transform marshland into farmland with this technique. You can get really good soil from ponds or marshes in the forest just by digging it up and letting it dry passively on the side and fetch it later.

thank you for your work. I'm going to add this to part of my 7th grade Aztec unit.

So uplifting to see people working in harmony with their environment.