Climate resilient food systems and community reconnection through radical seed diversity
Diversity is essential to climate resilience in food and farming. Traditionally, agrobiodiversity has been cultivated and sustained through communities’ relationships with seeds. A fluid process of saving, preserving, and exchanging seeds allows for regional adaptation and transformation. This pro...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Lyson Center for Civic Agriculture and Food Systems
2024-03-01
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| Series: | Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development |
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| Online Access: | https://foodsystemsjournal.org/index.php/fsj/article/view/1229 |
| _version_ | 1797263127034724352 |
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| author | Chris Smith |
| author_facet | Chris Smith |
| author_sort | Chris Smith |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description |
Diversity is essential to climate resilience in food and farming. Traditionally, agrobiodiversity has been cultivated and sustained through communities’ relationships with seeds. A fluid process of saving, preserving, and exchanging seeds allows for regional adaptation and transformation. This process results in seed diversity at the crop, variety, and genetic level. Over the last century, agrobiodiversity has declined at an alarming rate, and simultaneously there has been an erosion of community seed-keeping practices. A reaction to these interrelated crises has been an increased push to preserve biodiversity through institutional seed preservation efforts (also called ex situ preservation), which focus on genetic preservation of seeds in controlled environments. The seeds are genetic resources that are made available to plant breeders, who solve agronomic problems by creating improved cultivars for farmers. This is very different from community seed-keeping (also called in situ preservation), which values seed-people relationships and fosters natural agrobiodiversity and regional adaptation. Seeds are seen in direct connection to food, and saved for immediate and practical reasons like yield, flavor, and resistance to biotic stressors. In traditional communities, seeds are often perceived as kin, as ancestors or living beings with both histories and futures. For institutional seed preservation, collecting and maintaining seed diversity is an imperative insurance policy against future challenges. Ironically, this model erodes community-based seed-keeping efforts and increases dependence on institutional seed preservation to maintain genetic diversity. In this paper, we explore declining agrobiodiversity and community seed-keeping and share our experiences working with a diverse range of varieties from The Heirloom Collard Project (HCP). We propose that radical seed diversity can jump-start autonomous, community-based seed-keeping efforts, increasing agrobiodiversity and, ultimately, the climate resilience of food systems.
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| first_indexed | 2024-04-25T00:08:04Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-6de04a60c1ed4e5dae259ffaff1f3820 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2152-0801 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-25T00:08:04Z |
| publishDate | 2024-03-01 |
| publisher | Lyson Center for Civic Agriculture and Food Systems |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development |
| spelling | doaj.art-6de04a60c1ed4e5dae259ffaff1f38202024-03-13T19:32:47ZengLyson Center for Civic Agriculture and Food SystemsJournal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development2152-08012024-03-0113210.5304/jafscd.2024.132.007Climate resilient food systems and community reconnection through radical seed diversityChris Smith0The Utopian Seed Project Diversity is essential to climate resilience in food and farming. Traditionally, agrobiodiversity has been cultivated and sustained through communities’ relationships with seeds. A fluid process of saving, preserving, and exchanging seeds allows for regional adaptation and transformation. This process results in seed diversity at the crop, variety, and genetic level. Over the last century, agrobiodiversity has declined at an alarming rate, and simultaneously there has been an erosion of community seed-keeping practices. A reaction to these interrelated crises has been an increased push to preserve biodiversity through institutional seed preservation efforts (also called ex situ preservation), which focus on genetic preservation of seeds in controlled environments. The seeds are genetic resources that are made available to plant breeders, who solve agronomic problems by creating improved cultivars for farmers. This is very different from community seed-keeping (also called in situ preservation), which values seed-people relationships and fosters natural agrobiodiversity and regional adaptation. Seeds are seen in direct connection to food, and saved for immediate and practical reasons like yield, flavor, and resistance to biotic stressors. In traditional communities, seeds are often perceived as kin, as ancestors or living beings with both histories and futures. For institutional seed preservation, collecting and maintaining seed diversity is an imperative insurance policy against future challenges. Ironically, this model erodes community-based seed-keeping efforts and increases dependence on institutional seed preservation to maintain genetic diversity. In this paper, we explore declining agrobiodiversity and community seed-keeping and share our experiences working with a diverse range of varieties from The Heirloom Collard Project (HCP). We propose that radical seed diversity can jump-start autonomous, community-based seed-keeping efforts, increasing agrobiodiversity and, ultimately, the climate resilience of food systems. https://foodsystemsjournal.org/index.php/fsj/article/view/1229agrobiodiversityclimate resiliencerelational seed-keepingregional adaptationseed preservationcollards |
| spellingShingle | Chris Smith Climate resilient food systems and community reconnection through radical seed diversity Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development agrobiodiversity climate resilience relational seed-keeping regional adaptation seed preservation collards |
| title | Climate resilient food systems and community reconnection through radical seed diversity |
| title_full | Climate resilient food systems and community reconnection through radical seed diversity |
| title_fullStr | Climate resilient food systems and community reconnection through radical seed diversity |
| title_full_unstemmed | Climate resilient food systems and community reconnection through radical seed diversity |
| title_short | Climate resilient food systems and community reconnection through radical seed diversity |
| title_sort | climate resilient food systems and community reconnection through radical seed diversity |
| topic | agrobiodiversity climate resilience relational seed-keeping regional adaptation seed preservation collards |
| url | https://foodsystemsjournal.org/index.php/fsj/article/view/1229 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT chrissmith climateresilientfoodsystemsandcommunityreconnectionthroughradicalseeddiversity |