Ecological community: Heterarchical organization in a contemporary agri-food system in Northern Andes

•Heterarchical community organization is found in the Ecuadorian Andes.•Agricultural production utilizes ancient infrastructure in an indigenous community.•Identity, cosmovision, and institutions promote ecological community organization.•Diversity, specialization, and consensus optimize responses to ongoing challenges.•Heterarchical organization, resilience, and agency ensure sustainable food security. Andean-based archeological evidence suggests the existence of heterarchical pre-Columbian societies organized as egalitarian and resource-specialized communities with the capacity to create and maintain intensive productive systems. Using Stark’s analytical framework, we explore the current heterarchical organization of the indigenous Ecuadorian community of Caliata in the context of local cosmovision, identity, and customary institutions. Caliata’s heterarchy is expressed by distributed intelligence through diverse and specialized organizational units that are in constant negotiation in order to reach consensus and to procure optimal responses to uncertainty. The organizational factors at play in mobilizing agri-food systems are key to understanding ancient technologies currently used to support sustainable food security.