Mexican Ayocote Super Bean! A 6000-Year History of the Milpa Agricultural System from Mayan and Aztec Cultures

by Brian Shilhavy

Traditional Mexican agriculture follows the ancient traditions of the “milpa”, which is a system of small-scale family agriculture that pre-dates the Spaniards arrival in Mexico, and even pre-dates the Aztec Empire.

In this simple, time-honored method of small-scale family agriculture, the milpa consists of its main crop, corn (maiz), along with other native crops that co-exist and enhance the soil along with the corn, such as heritage beans and squash.

The beans grow on vines that wrap themselves around the corn stalks, while large leafy crops such as squash and pumpkins grow and spread along the bottom close to the soil, giving weeds and other undesirable plants no chance to grow, and require no chemicals whatsoever that need to be applied to the native, heirloom crops, or the soil that they grow upon.

After harvest, the corn stalks are burned down returning key nutrients to the soil through its ashes.

Here is a short video that describes the milpa system.

Here is another 5-minute documentary produced by the UN showing how Mexicans are reviving this ancient agricultural system, mainly with women. (Note: We do not support or fund the United Nations nor any of their agencies and programs, but this is a very well-produced short documentary that is very educational regarding the “milpa”.)

In my online store, Healthy Traditions, we have already been selling native, heirloom corn from small-scale milpa communities for over two years now, including our famous corn tortilla chips fried in our own coconut oil, because it is the only place we have found corn that consistently tests clean for GMOs and the herbicide glyphosate, which has contaminated the North American corn supply.

Today, we are announcing another ancient, heirloom product that is produced in these small-scale milpa agricultural systems, Ayocote beans!

These ancient “super beans” are heirloom beans that have been handed down from generation to generation through families living in Mesoamerica long before the Spaniards arrived, and even before the Aztec Empire, and date back to 6000 years!

Ayeócotl (Náhuatl)

Ayocote (Phaseolus coccineus leiosepalus), also known as ayeócotl in the native náhuatl language, is a climbing legume, with pre-Hispanic origins.

It is grown by all indigenous communities of the Mexican plateau, even at over 2,000 meters above sea level. Due to its widespread presence, even in very different climate conditions, Ayocotes have developed an ample genetic variety: Mexico’s genetic resource bank preserves over 800 different known varieties.

Ayocote beans have been highly valued since ancient times for their ability to endure extreme temperatures and various altitudes, as well as for the ease with which their seeds can be preserved for years, making them essential during food shortages. There are more than 150 species of beans worldwide, but only 31 are native to Mexico.

However, bean consumption in Mexico has been declining in recent years, and there is a movement now in Mexico to preserve these ancient bean varieties, as well as other heirloom seeds such as corn.

The Mexico Daily News published an article last year (2025), highlighting this move in Mexico to preserve their native agricultural heritage which is being threatened by Big Ag and mass production of agricultural products using GMO varieties and herbicides like glyphosate.

Taste of Mexico: Beans

by María Meléndez

It is often said that Mexican culture is built on corn, but beans were as important for the development of the pre-Columbian cultures of Mesoamerica.

Excerpts:

Beans have been highly valued since ancient times for their ability to endure extreme temperatures and various altitudes, as well as for the ease with which their seeds can be preserved for years, making them essential during food shortages.

Beans were a crucial component of the milpa, an agricultural system designed to provide the three staple ingredients of the Mesoamerican diet: corn, beans and squash. This system operated in perfect harmony: corn served as a structure for the beans to climb, beans enriched the soil with nitrogen, and squash helped retain moisture throughout the season.

Are we endangering our bean tradition?

Despite being essential to our ancestors, bean consumption in Mexico has declined significantly in recent decades. In the 1980s, the average Mexican ate 16 kilos of beans yearly, while average consumption in 2024 was only 7.7 kilos, according to a 2021 report by the Ministry of Agriculture (Sader).

Several factors contribute to this decline. Preparing beans requires more time, and our consumption of meat and processed foods has increased.

Culturally, beans are often viewed as food for the poor. I remember that whenever someone in my family faced economic challenges, my grandparents would dramatically say,

“Even if we can only afford to eat beans, we will remain honorable people.”

Today, various organizations and communities are working to preserve Mexico’s native beans through the milpa system.

Additionally, in late 2024, President Claudia Sheinbaum announced that the federal government would seek to increase bean and corn production by 30% and bring attention back to endemic varieties of corn and beans in order to achieve self-sufficiency in production.

Full Article.

I was recently able to purchase enough of these rare, heirloom super beans to offer them to the public through Healthy Traditions.

We now have available for ordering online, Mexican Heirloom Ayocote Mixed Beans, and Mexican Heirloom Ayocote Black Beans.

I bought up their entire remaining supply, so we only have enough to sell in 5 lb. and 15 lb. sizes while supplies last, as we will not have enough to sell in bulk 5-gallon pails until early 2027, when the next harvest comes in and where I have already put in my request to purchase as much as we can.

You can order from this page while supplies last.

Healthy Traditions

The ancient Mexican “milpa” traditional agricultural system is very similar to the ancient agricultural systems of the Philippines I observed firsthand while living on a farm in a rural community on Mt. Banahaw with my family in the late 1990s, and first couple of years of 2000.

When I told the poor, rural farmers living in that community, most of whom were trying to get out of their rural community and go to the big city in Manila or get visas to the Middle East or the U.S. where they thought life was better and they could earn more money, that they were in fact rich due to their native, natural agricultural system, they did not believe me.

So I had to show them that what I was saying was true, by marketing the coconut oil of the “poor people” that was made by hand in their kitchen from fresh coconuts, which we call today our “Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil,” and kicked off the Coconut Oil revolution in the U.S. as I leveraged the emerging technology of the Internet back then, educating Americans on the truth about edible oils and saturated fats.

When you buy our Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil today, you are supporting these poor, agricultural workers who still produce this coconut oil the same way by hand.

And the same is true when you purchase our Mexican products produced from community milpa agricultural small-scale producers, like our new Ayocote Super beans!

Products produced from these ancient agricultural small-scale producers are some of the most nutrient-dense products you can purchase on the planet, and we test them also to make sure there is no cross-contamination from GMO seeds and glyphosate-sprayed crops.

Technology and AI cannot replicate the human wisdom of these small-scale farmers! Faith in modern agriculture and their mass-production of contaminated crops is what could potentially produce starvation and malnutrition.

Sustainable and nutritious agricultural systems that require human labor are what is going to be able to provide food security and be able to feed people around the world going forward, and it requires a return to the past and agricultural systems that have nourished the earth’s populations for thousands of years, and NOT the false promises of the technologists and their false techno-prophecies of the future!

To Adam he said,

“Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.

It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field.

By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.”

(Genesis 3:17-19)

Do you really believe that the Technocrats can overcome the curse of God on the earth??

I don’t, and that’s why Healthy Traditions exists, to support HUMAN LABOR and ancient agricultural systems which are the ONLY hope for the future and food security.

Comment on this article at HealthImpactNews.com.

This article was written by Human Superior Intelligence (HSI)