Holiday Update from The Ayahuasca Farm
The Santa Clara community council, picture above, met and approved IP2 RAO S.A.C.’s new lease for 2 more hectares of land to cultivate ayahuasca.
The 2 additional hectares are adjacent to our existing 1 hectare site. They will all be under cultivation with a mix of ayahuasca (B. caapi), chacruna (P. viridis), guava trees, and pomarosa trees, plus a section devoted to a full-service Shipibo-Conibo medicinal plant apothecary garden. It’s permaculture designed by a Shipibo-Conibo-Chinese permaculture pro who works with the NGO I worked at there during my 2L summer of law school, Alianza Arkana. He’s a huge asset to the company and a close advisor.
We sent in the caapi and chacruna clones and built a nursery down by the creek at the bottom of the land.
We hired a full-time Shipibo-Conibo employee from the community with a compensation package of both cash and equity, 1% of the shares of IP2 RAO S.A.C.
We are building equity in indigenous communities. This equity has two meanings.
- Shares of the company. The goal is to get equity of IP2 RAO S.A.C. and ultimately the RAO DAO (see previous post) into the hands of Shipibo-Conibo and other indigenous people who work with the company.
- Sharing by the company. This year we sponsored the Santa Clara Chocolatada. And something else…a surprise for you who read that far.
The event is held every year and involves hot cocoa and panetón, a fluffy cake. Check out that chocolatada line!
The hot cocoa cauldron brewed a richer brown than ayahuasca.
Attendees left with smiles and toys (capitalist colonialism of consumer products be damned!) and full bellies in a year when all such joyful things have been hard to come by.
Our director Demer was the Santa Claus of Santa Clara this year.
We also funded the Santa Clara women's soccer team for the annual bilingual festival. Check out these shirts with the kené sleves.
CORPORACION AGRARIA IP2 RAO S.A.C. is on the back. That’s our full name, but I like to call us RAO. Or the farm project.
Here’s mine.
We’ll all be playing ball down there together soon.
That’s it for now, folks. Happy holidays!
Reach me at jh@vine.vc if you want to learn more about what we’re doing here or want to get involved.