Seeds of Resistance, Seeds of Hope

Place and Agency in the Conservation of Biodiversity

Edited by Virginia D. Nazarea, Robert E. Rhoades, and Jenna Andrews-Swann

The University of Arizona Press

Food is more than simple sustenance. It feeds our minds as well as our bodies. It nurtures us emotionally as well as physically. It holds memories. In fact, one of the surprising consequences of globalization and urbanization is the expanding web of emotional attachments to farmland, to food growers, and to place. And there is growing affection, too, for home gardening and its “grow your own food” ethos. Without denying the gravity of the problems of feeding the earth’s population while conserving its natural resources, Seeds of Resistance, Seeds of Hope reminds us that there are many positive movements and developments that demonstrate the power of opposition and optimism.

This broad collection brings to the table a bag full of tools from anthropology, sociology, genetics, plant breeding, education, advocacy, and social activism. By design, multiple voices are included. They cross or straddle disciplinary, generational, national, and political borders. Contributors demonstrate the importance of cultural memory in the persistence of traditional or heirloom crops, as well as the agency exhibited by displaced and persecuted peoples in place-making and reconstructing nostalgic landscapes (including gardens from their homelands). Contributions explore local initiatives to save native and older seeds, the use of modern technologies to conserve heirloom plants, the bioconservation efforts of indigenous people, and how genetically modified organisms (GMOs) have been successfully combated. Together they explore the conservation of biodiversity at different scales, from different perspectives, and with different theoretical and methodological approaches. Collectively, they demonstrate that there is reason for hope.

The broad reach of this volume and the transdisciplinary composition of its authors make it a relevant and timely read for students and educators across academic disciplines and groups of practitioners.’—Human Ecology

‘An excellent edited assemblage of conservation case studies that captures our attention and imagination.’—Agriculture and Human Values

‘A must-read for anyone interested in the current debates in plant diversity conservation.’—Economic Botany
‘Connects the lives of people around the world engaged in the same loving struggle to resist homogenization and cultivate a world where diversity can flourish.’—Anabaptist Witness

‘This volume is welcome and significant, bringing together contributions from key authors and activists. It addresses some of the most innovative grassroots efforts at biodiversity conservation on the planet today; and features communities that have previously been overlooked or whose struggles beg further inquiry and acclaim.’—Devon G. Peña, author of Mexican Americans and the Environment: Tierra y vida

‘Without a rich array of local varieties, most of the world’s crops will become extinct in the near future. Thus, saving a wide variety of heirloom seeds is necessary, but almost no one is paying much attention to the problem. The authors describe many seed-savers, some of whom are actively resisting giant corporations and others who are merely trying to hang onto things they love.’—Eugene N. Anderson, author of The Pursuit of Ecotopia: Lessons from Indigenous and Traditional Societies for the Human Ecology of Our Modern World

Virginia D. Nazarea is a professor of anthropology at the University of Georgia. She is the author or editor of several books, including Heirloom Seeds and their Keepers: Memory and Marginality in the Conservation of Biological Diversity,Ethnoecology: Situated Knowledge/Located Lives, and Cultural Memory and Biodiversity. Robert E. Rhoades was Distinguished Research Professor of Anthropology and director of the Sustainable Human Ecosystems Laboratory at the University of Georgia. He authored more than 160 publications, including Listening to Mountains and Development with Identity: Community, Culture and Sustainability in the Andes. Jenna E. Andrews-Swann is an assistant professor of anthropology at Georgia Gwinnett College.

Preface
Virginia D. Nazarea
Conservation beyond Design: An Introduction
Virginia D. Nazarea and Robert E. Rhoades

I. Marginality and Memory in Place- Based Conservation
1 Temptation to Hope: From the “Idea” to the Milieu of Biodiversity
Virginia D. Nazarea
2 Apples of Their Eyes: Memory Keepers of the American South
Susannah Chapman and Tom Brown
3 Food from the Ancestors: Documentation, Conservation, and Revival of Eastern Cherokee Heirloom Plants
James R. Veteto and Kevin Welch
4 Sense of Place and Indigenous People’s Biodiversity Conservation in the Americas
Tirso Gonzales
5 Saving Our Seeds: An Indigenous Perspective from Cotacachi, Ecuador
Magdalena Fueres, Rodrigo Flores, and Rosita Ramos
6 People, Place, and Plants in the Pacific Coast of Colombia
Juana Camacho

II. Agency and Reterritorialization in the Context of Globalization
7 Maya Mother Seeds in Resistance of Highland Chiapas in Defense of Native Corn
Peter Brown
8 Preserving Soybean Diversity in Japan
Richard Moore
9 Complementarity and Conflict: In Situ and Ex Situ Approaches to Conserving Plant Genetic Resources
Cary Fowler
10 Situated Meanings of Key Concepts in the Regulation of Plant Ge ne tic Resources
Kristine Skarbø
11 Exile Landscapes of Nostalgia and Hope in the Cuban Diaspora
Jenna E. Andrews-Swann
12 When Seeds Are Scarce: Globalization and the Response of Three Cultures
Robert E. Rhoades

Contributors
Index

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