Guest Profile

Mark Ament

The Maca Team sources and sells the best selection of high quality Peruvian grown Maca products in the world, offering 8 different kinds of Maca in powders, capsules and extracts. All their products are organically grown, fairly traded, GMO-free, fresh and potent. A family run company with single minded dedication to preserving and sharing the best in Peruvian Maca with the world, The Maca Team grew out of its owner’s passion to share the benefits of Maca. Mark Ament first tried Maca in the late 1990s. He loved the energizing effects of the root and wanted to purchase more after he finished his first jar. At that point, quality Maca was difficult to come by outside of Latin America. Mark tried various products and found wide variations in potency and quality. Finally, after a couple of years he discovered Maca from a small farming co-operative that absolutely impressed him. Mark started regularly taking it himself and then began sharing it with friends and family. Later he began distributing it to students in his Raw Vegetarian Cuisine classes. After receiving lots of positive feedback about this Maca, Mark launched a website in 2008 to share the high quality product with more people. The operation started as very small “bootstrap” operation. Mark wore many hats… webmaster, customer service representative, graphic designer… as his semi-retired Father and Step-mother shipped orders from their home. From the very beginning, Mark saw a lot of hyperbole, salesmanship and even misinformation in the the Maca world and decided to run his tiny company differently. His goals were to offer the most complete and transparent information on Maca anywhere, to provide the best choice of high quality Peruvian grown Maca anywhere and to treat customers like friends. Customer by customer, the business grew – organically and slowly.

Today the Maca Team is still family run. Mark’s father and step-mother still manage shipping operations. Mark’s mother leads the customer service team and Mark continues to write for the website and to advocate for the preservation of Peruvian grown Maca. Over the past year The Maca Team has become a particularly important voice for protecting Peruvian Maca from international threats. Maca is a native plant of Peru that has a long tradition. It grows best in the extreme temperatures and conditions of the high Andes at elevations above 13,000 feet. The Maca plant, which is the world’s highest growing crop, forms a root about the size of a radish that has been prized as a powerful food for over 2000 years. It has been used throughout its history to boost energy, increase fertility, boost stamina and strength and provide much needed nutrition for consumers. It is still a daily staple of people in the high Andes. Internationally, Maca is protected as a genetic heritage plant of Peru. Over the past couple of years, however, Maca seeds and roots have been smuggled out of Peru to China where farmers are growing the plant outside of the Andes for the first time. In addition to being unlawfully grown, this Chinese Maca is of much lower quality, may be GMO (China holds 7 patents on GMOs for Maca) and simply doesn’t work very well. Chinese companies are now attempting to sell this subpar product on the world market, a fact which is threatening the livelihoods of traditional farmers in Peru as well as the integrity and quality of Maca in general.

To resist this development and protect this amazing plant, The Maca Team has taken several actions. First it continues to pay fair prices for Maca to the Peruvian farmers even as Chinese suppliers try to undercut them (Mark will close the business before he will ever sell Chinese Maca). Second, Mark educates consumers of Maca about this situation on The Maca Team website and other outlets. Finally, The Maca Team has organized a petition to submit to the Minister of Agriculture in Peru to “Save Peruvian Maca.” (Available on the website). The Maca Team receives wonderful testimonials from customers daily and this is what keeps Mark and his team going. “When I hear that one of our customers no longer suffers from hot flashes, or has a sudden increase in libido, or feels more energy than she has in years, or that she has finally gotten pregnant….all the work we put in is certainly confirmed and worthwhile,” says Mark. ‘It’s incredibly gratifying to know that these results, along with many others, are possible by simply including this humble food in your diet. I’d love everyone to know about Maca’s health promoting potential.”

Some Important Links
About the Maca Smuggling Crisis
http://www.themacateam.com/prices-soar-as-maca-roots-are-smuggled-out-of-peru

Peruvian v Chinese Maca
http://www.themacateam.com/peruvian-maca-root-powder-vs-chinese-maca

About Us In More Details – Including Our Core Values:
http://www.themacateam.com/why-choose-us

Testimonials About The Maca Team and our Maca
http://www.themacateam.com/maca-testimonials