Meet husband and wife - Corin and Sally, founders of Seleno Health - The Maca and Ceremonial Cacao Experts, who are both passionate about maca and cacao and the plentiful benefits that can be derived from them. So passionate in fact, that they both quit their corporate jobs to devote themselves full time to learning everything they could about these ancient superfoods!
Corin and Sally (pictured right) with one of their cacao farmers in Peru
Inspiring Each Other to a Better Life
In 2015 Dr Corin Storkey (from New Zealand) was working in a global pharmaceutical company as a medical consultant and Sally Huapaya (from Peru) in a bank as a loans specialist, but they both longed for a life beyond the big corporate world. Corin met Sally while on holiday in Peru and she shared her Andean and Amazonian culture with him, taking him to the mountains to learn the story of her ancestors and the jungle of Peru to connect with cacao.
After experiencing the way of life of the maca and cacao farmers they met they both became inspired to reconnect with their roots and find a way to bring harmony and balance to their lives. For Sally, maca and cacao are both embedded in her ancestry and she wanted to help preserve the culture and traditions of her people, to give a voice to these sacred master plants. And Corin was amazed with how effective maca and cacao were in helping him overcome the mental health and chronic fatigue issues he had suffered for many years. Together they decided to bring these sacred plants to Aotearoa-New Zealand to share their knowledge with people here and connect them to its healing powers and sacred spirit.
Values Based Trading
As is often the case in developing countries, high global demand for Peruvian superfoods has exposed the local communities to exploitation from big business, but Seleno Health rejects this way of trading:
“We created a model of business that focuses on the sustainability of maca and cacao. Everything we do is about continuing ancient traditions, including sustainable artisanal farming, agroforestry, ethical sourcing, educating in Peru and New Zealand about the culture of maca and cacao, ensuring both our farmer and community are reaping the rewards of all their hard work.”
All Seleno Health maca and cacao is farm-to-table, meaning the Peruvian farmer receives significantly more money than if selling via a commodities broker. In addition, they put aside a percentage of profit into a fund to support the local farming communities. These funds are used in their social responsibility projects to buy books, school supplies, equipment, textiles, machinery, necessities for the local school and numerous other projects. With their cacao they are supporting the Mishollo community in Tocache Peru who have been heavily affected by the illegal drug trade and are seeking to earn a living wage working with artisanal cacao.
The Kiwi Connection
Since launching in 2017 they have run over 400 workshops around Aotearoa-New Zealand on Incan and Andean culture and traditional plant medicines. They have a large following of people who have successfully used maca and cacao to support health conditions such as chronic fatigue, mental health, hormonal imbalances, menopause, infertility, athletic performance and even thyroid issues. They run an online ceremonial cacao training course to connect people feeling the call of cacao to the ancestral knowledge and modern science behind the plant. They also run immersive cacao retreats in Peru every October.
Each July they take a small group of Kiwis to Peru to live on their maca farm and experience the incredible culture of Junin. There they connect with the local people to experience a deeper understanding of the practices and culture associated with the medical plant that has improved so many lives.
To find out more about how maca may be able to support your health, you can check out Corin and Sally’s new website: www.themacaexperts.com - a comprehensive knowledge portal for maca based science and tradition. Their website and educational information about ceremonial cacao can be found here: https://selenohealth.com/