In this episode of We Need to Act, host Sara Rego sits down with Michael Kotutwa Johnson, a 250th-generation Hopi farmer and Assistant Professor at the University of Arizona, to explore how Indigenous knowledge can help address today’s climate and food crises.

Michael explains why industrial agriculture—not climate change alone—is driving soil degradation, biodiversity loss, and water scarcity worldwide. Drawing from thousands of years of Hopi farming traditions, he shares how ancestral seeds, place-based agriculture, and reciprocal relationships with the land create resilience in even the harshest environments.

The conversation also explores food sovereignty, the health impacts of losing traditional diets, the role of women in matrilineal food systems, and the Hopi Prophecy Rock—offering a powerful reflection on the choice humanity still has between excess and balance.

This episode is a call to rethink how we grow food, care for the land, and shape our collective future.

Episode Highlights

• Indigenous agricultural knowledge offers real solutions to today’s climate and food crises
• Why industrial agriculture — not climate change alone — is accelerating soil and ecosystem collapse
• How Hopi ancestral seeds have adapted over generations to thrive in arid environments
• The role of small, place-based farms in feeding the majority of the world’s population
• The connection between the loss of traditional diets and rising health crises in Indigenous communities
• What food sovereignty really means — and why it matters now
• How matrilineal systems create balance in agriculture and community life
• The Hopi Prophecy Rock and the choice humanity still has between excess and sustainability
• Why faith, hope, and planting anyway are acts of resistance and resilience

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