Santa Rosa, a village along Peru's Ucayali River, is little distinguished from innumerable other hamlets strung out along the banks of Amazonia's rivers. Its outward appearance belies that it is not only a great storehouse of agricultural knowledge but also a hotbed of change, creativity, and experimentation.
Although usually classified as shifting, or slash-and-burn, cultivators, the farmers of this small, isolated settlement routinely practice 12 distinct kinds of agriculture. ...