Maya Allen
Research Technician, Soil Ecology
Maya is from a barrier island in South Carolina, and the outer coastal plain of the Southeast contains significant history and lore for her maternal family. Maya studied biology (BS) and international studies (BA) and minored in environmental studies at the College of Charleston. She also gained valuable skills while working as a farmhand at Grassroots Farm & Dairy & from farmers Anne & Aaron at Gaining Ground Farm. In school, Maya worked on independent research with a favorite mentor, Seth Pritchard. The project sought to develop a heat girdling tool as a method to induce senescence in fine roots. This research made her familiar with work of the tedious and repetitive sort and was her first glimpse at research in a lab. She spent summers farming, and after school, worked as a farmhand. She helped to raise sheep in a high-intensity rotational grazing pattern for dairy, wool, meat, and soil-mending. Through this work, Maya learned to dress and prepare for laborious fieldwork in 100-degree, buggy heat, rain, and well
below-freezing mornings to break ice on the sheep water.
Q&A
What’s most inspiring about your specific position at The Land Institute?
Prairie soils
What drew you to work at The Land Institute?
I want to participate in thoughtful agriculture that begins to mend the harm done to human communities and communities of other creatures of the earth. To be involved in the transition away from centralized, annual, monocultural, shortsighted forms of agriculture, too often dependent on the mining and burning of ancient stores of energy, is important to me. Also, the opportunity to work in a manner at once tactile and intellectual excites me, as does the prospect of working with mentors. There is emphasis on education and learning here. The project of the Land Institute appeals to me because it has cultivated and seeks to cultivate an impact so real that I could hold it in my palm – a seed.
What perennial grain do you look forward to eating most, and how would you prepare it?
I would most love to eat pastries made with Kernza. I am not sure I have the sort of talent to make myself pastries that taste good, so what I am most excited to cook with myself are pulses. I love beans. I will make stew!
What else are you passionate about outside of work?
I like wool. I am interested in craft that is intertwined with crop cultivation and regional tradition. I love stories. I like to read. I think it is good to practice imagining different worlds. I also love to cook, though I am not very good in the kitchen.
What were you like at age 10?
I had very stinky feet. I did not wear socks. I loved to take baths.
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