Nathan’s interdisciplinary background includes degrees at The Evergreen State College (B.S. Environmental Science), The University of Northern British Columbia (M.A. Geography) and Colegio de la Frontera Sur (PhD Ecology and Sustainable Development).

Since 2008, he has worked in Mesoamerica on projects related to development-induced displacement, traditional agriculture and agroecology, and Indigenous revitalization. Much of his research and accompaniment work has taken place in the Maya-Achí territory of Guatemala, where ancestral farming practices, crop varieties, knowledge, and sustainable livelihoods are maintained amidst enormous obstacles.

For his dissertation, Nathan examined the local agroecology movement, with a focus on Maya-Achí culture, development processes, education, and local perspectives of wellbeing.

In addition to teaching, he worked as a consultant for international organizations, including The Nature Conservancy, where he conducted research on regenerative soil management and its connection to socio-ecological resilience in Central America.

Nathan brings this broad range of experience to Schumacher College and hopes to inspire students and relate the principles and values of Indigenous agroecology to the UK context.

He is committed to experiential education, to help train the next generation of change-makers and regenerative food and farming professionals.

Books

Peer-reviewed

Rice, Anika M.; Einbinder, Nathan; Calderon, Claudia Irene (2022). ‘With agroecology, we can defend ourselves’: Examining smallholder resilience and economic solidarity during pandemic-era economic shock in Guatemala. Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems.

Einbinder, Nathan; Morales, Helda; Mier y Teran, Mateo; Aldasoro, Miriam; Ferguson, Bruce G.; and Nigh, Ron (2022). Agroecology from the ground up: A critical analysis of sustainable soil management in the highlands of Guatemala. Agriculture and Human Values.

Einbinder, Nathan; Morales, Helda; Mier y Teran, Mateo; Aldasoro, Miriam; Ferguson, Bruce G.; and Nigh, Ron (2021). Agroecología en al periferia: Un caso del territorio maya-achí, Guatemala. Desenvolvimento e Meio Ambiente, (58) 604-621.

Einbinder, Nathan (2020). Lessons in resilience from the Maya-Achí. Journal of Latin American Geography, 19 (4).

Einbinder, Nathan and Morales, Helda (2020). ‘Development from within’: Agroecology and the quest for utziil k’asleem in the Maya-Achí territory of Guatemala. Journal of Latin American Geography, 19 (3), 133-158

Einbinder, Nathan; Morales, Helda; Mier y Teran, Mateo; Aldasoro, Miriam; Ferguson, Bruce G.; and Nigh, Ron (2019). Agroecology on the periphery: A case from the Maya-Achí territory, Guatemala. Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems, Vol. 43 (7-8) 744-763.  

Einbinder, Nathan (2014). Río Negro survivors rebuild and face the state. NACLA Report on the Americas, 47 (2) 14-17 

Books

Einbinder, Nathan (2021). The genocidal Chixoy dam project (Chapter). In Nolin, Catherine and Russell, Grahame (Eds.) Testimonio: Canadian mining in the aftermath of genocides in Guatemala. Toronto, ON: Between the Lines.  

Einbinder, Nathan (2017). Dams, displacement and development: Perceptions from Río Negro, Guatemala. New York, NY: Springer  

Other publications 

Einbinder, Nathan (2022). Crisis can ignite change. Wicked Leeks magazine. https://wickedleeks.riverford.co.uk/opinion/regenerative-thinking-crisis-can-ignite-change/

Einbinder, Nathan (2022). Drought lessons from Central America. Wicked Leeks magazine.

https://wickedleeks.riverford.co.uk/opinion/drought-lessons-from-central-america/

Einbinder, Nathan (2022). Regenerative agriculture: Transforming the system or maintaining the status quo? Wicked Leeks magazine.

https://wickedleeks.riverford.co.uk/opinion/regenerative-farming-transforming-the-system-or-preserving-the-status-quo/ 

Einbinder, Nathan and Morales, Helda (2019). Biofertilizantes y bioplaguicidas para la transición agroecológica? La jornada del campo, vol. 146, Mexico City, Mexico.

Einbinder, Nathan (2019). Agroecology and climate change resilience: Observations from the highlands of Guatemala. Terra Nullius: Repossessing the extent (Blog), Centre for Development and the Environment, University of Oslo. www.sum.uio.no/forskning/blogg/terra-nullius/agroecology-and-climate-change-resilience-observat.html 

Einbinder, Nathan (2019). Tecnologías del buen vivir. Revista Labtec, vol. 2. Laboratorios de Tecnologías el Rule, Ciudad de Mexico, Mexico. https://laboratoriodetecnologias.mx/revistalabtec/tecnologias-del-buen-vivir.html 

Einbinder, Nathan and Morales, Helda (2019). Why traditional knowledge – not external tech – is the key to truly sustainable agriculture. Ensia. https://ensia.com/voices/sustainable-agriculture-traditional-knowledge-indigenous-farmers/ 

Einbinder, Nathan and Nolin, Catherine (2012). No means no: After saving their land once from the Prosperity mine, the Tsilhqot’in First Nation in central BC are still fighting for their way of life against a second open-pit proposal. Alternatives, 38 (6) 52-57. 

Einbinder, Nathan and Nolin, Catherine (2010). Voices from the edge: A Mayan community shares stories of its struggle to avoid forced eviction by a nickel mine. Cultural Survival Quarterly, 34 (3) 28-33. 

Einbinder, Nathan (2009). La verdad de Río Negro. Entremundos, Mayo/Junio 24-27

Einbinder, Nathan (2009). Guatemalans resist mega-mines, hydro-power dams. Environmental News Service. http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/mar2009/2009-03-05-02.asp

Einbinder, Nathan December (2008). Jolt economy with environment-friendly projects. Op-ed, USA Today.  

Einbinder, Nathan August (2008). The hope for an endless mine. Upside Down World. http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1421/1/

Water cycles and the Food System
Emergent Generation, Farm Ed, 2022 

Indigenous perspectives of wellbeing in relation to food and agriculture
Oxford Real Farming Conference, 2022

 Recovery after genocide: Food sovereignty and Indigenous revitalization in the highlands of GuatemalaCentre for Rural Policy Research (CRPR), University of Exeter, UK. 2021

In pursuit of ‘una vida digna’: Development and community recovery in the highlands of Guatemala.
Interdisciplinary Global Development Center (IGDC), University of York, UK. 2019

Massification of agroecology. Centre for Agroecology, Water, and Resilience (CAWR), Coventry University. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eVZ6jjurdA, 2019

‘Estamos en sequía permanente’: Community development, agroecology, and climate change adaptation in the Maya-Achí territory of Guatemala.
Conference of the Guatemala Scholars Network. Antigua, Guatemala, 2019

Explorando la relación entre el buen vivir y la agroecología en el territorio Maya-Achí, Guatemala. 1er. Congreso de la Sociedad Mexicana de Agroecología. San Cristóbal de las Casas, Mexico, 2019

Agroecology, buen vivir, and perspectives of development in the Maya-Achí territory of Guatemala. Department of Global Studies, Portland State University, 2019                                                             
Agroecology as a strategy for community development and recovery: Lessons from the Maya-Achí.
Presented in the Symposium: Rural Transformation in Latin America’s Changing Climate. Center for Latin American and Iberian Studies, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, 2018 

Agroecology on the periphery: A case from the Maya-Achí territory, Guatemala.
Conference of Latin American Geographers (CLAG), San Jose, Costa Rica, 2018

 Civil institutions and reparations: A case from Rabinal, Guatemala. Presented for the course: Resiliencia Socio-ecológica y Equidad: el Papel de la Pluralidad de Leyes e Instituciones. Stockholm Resilience Center and ECOSUR, San Cristobal de Las Casas, Mexico, 2016 

Development gone awry: Guatemala’s Chixoy dam and the fight for justice.
UNBC’s Global Friday Speak Series. February 8, Prince George, Canada, 2014

Violence and neoliberalism: A case from Río Negro, Guatemala.
Presented at the Conference of Latin American Geographers, Grenada, Nicaragua, January 3-6 2009

My background is in Human Geography and Agroecology. My teaching and research interests are intertwined, and include: Indigenous food systems; traditional and ancestral farming practices and crop varieties; the intersections between agroecology, wellbeing, and food sovereignty; community development; degrowth; social processes of scaling agroecology and regenerative agriculture; farmer-to-farmer teaching and learning; climate change.