Farmers’ Bounty. Locating Crop Diversity in the Contemporary World

Abstract

Conventional wisdom suggests that globalization and the modernization of agriculture are equivalent to crop and agricultural homogenization, but the validity of these beliefs has not been seriously tested. Farmers’ Bounty joins the issue. It provides a timely introduction to and analysis of crop diversity, linked to agricultural and cultural diversity. The good news is that crop diversity is more resilient and persistent than generally thought; the bad news is that the future remains uncertain. Farmers’ Bounty is far-ranging in its scope. Not unexpectedly, Brush demonstrates awareness of relevant agricultural and anthropological literature in presenting thoughts on crop origins, ecology, evolution, diversity, management, rights of ownership, erosion, conservation, and the future. But what gives the book its flavor is less the unexpected than the long-term intimacy the author has shared with farmers and their crops and fields. Drawing on his experiences in three of the world’s principal regions of crop evolution and diversity (Andean Peru, Mexico, and Turkey), which are often referred to as Vavilov centers, and three dominant crops indigenous to those regions (potatoes, maize, and wheat, respectively), Brush explores and seeks to explain the essence of crop diversity and, implicitly and explicitly, much that is cultural diversity. Crop diversity inevitably links to human behaviors, culture, and technology. Hence, understanding crop diversity and its management is less a biological challenge than one of understanding humanness. This point comes through strongly in his discussion of the ethnoecology of crop diversity in Andean potato agriculture and the contrasting social and infrastructure situations found in the Paucartambo and Tulumayo valleys. Among other things, the example demonstrates that loss of crop diversity does not necessarily follow introduction of improved varieties—farmers continue to plant traditional varieties in small plots and/or integrate them in various rotations and mixes. Two questions about crop diversity are recurrent chapter themes: why there is so much crop variation, and why variation within a crop species is unevenly distributed? One must dig a bit for clues, for they appear in different places and contexts, but answers to the first question include: microclimatic and land form heterogeneity, yield, risk aversion or mitigation, resistance to insects and other pathogens, hardiness, access to markets or lack of it, culinary and storage characteristics, and whimsy or serendipity. In other words, anything that is seen to have selective value provides grist for diversity. Since selective values compete to meet different ends through time and space, diversity follows. In response to the second question, there is no single answer save selection. Different circumstances will lead to different diversity patterns. However, for many ancient crops, such as potatoes, maize, and wheat, magnified diversity persists in areas of origin and may be attributed to indigeneity of the crop and its wild relatives and coevolution with the cultures that nurtured them through millennia. Under these circumstances crop diversity and cultures are one and each depends on the other for survival. Understanding the basic causes of diversity does not necessarily answer the question, why so much? Is having thousands of potato variants more significant than having half that number or less? Can each type be accorded some unique selective advantage, or does the larger number imply rampant duplication or genetic noise? Is it really Hum Ecol (2007) 35:643–644 DOI 10.1007/s10745-006-9058-5