Virginia D. Nazarea, Robert E. Rhoades, and Jenna E. Andrews-Swan (eds.): Seeds of resistance, seeds of hope: place and agency in the conservation of biodiversity

Abstract

Inserting itself into the diffuse and highly contentious debate concerning the most effective means of global biodiversity conservation, this book provides a fuller view of how conservation is practiced, providing ample evidence of success. It proves timely in offering a multitude of perspectives on the issues facing preservationists, climbing down from the ivory tower of academia and getting its hands dirty to dig into the places where biodiversity conservation flourishes. As a compilation of case studies from around the US and the world, it demonstrates the irrepressibility of human will in recovering and replenishing ‘lost’ varieties of culturally revered plants. Through ‘‘authoring and anchoring place’’ (p. 13), this work argues that intimate ties to the land through historical legacy and especially through memory ground everyday conservationists and motivate them to produce and reproduce the cultural and historical narratives of native, heirloom food crops. Food embeds itself in individual and collective memories and through the cultivation of these foods, the people who preserve them also (re)member and cultivate identity. From Vietnamese immigrants in Chapter 12 and Cuban exiles in the US (Chapter 11), to indigenous farmers in the Americas (Chapters 4, 5, and 7), Black Colombian coastal groups (Chapter 6) and Cherokee tribes of the American South (Chapter 3), the quotidian actions of peoples marginalized from the mainstream constitute a profound political act of resistance. Completing the milieu of conservation perspectives, this work also offers a chapter (9) on international law that shapes biodiversity conservation globally and to some extent galvanizes resistance. But, resistance to what exactly? Reflecting the complexity of biodiversity and conservation approaches outlined across the chapters, the response to this question is not given explicitly. The book’s editors are careful not to give a concrete or inflexible definition of resistance, instead choosing to provide a general idea of how resistance is lived and the typical conditions that catalyze resistance. Through the chapters we are to understand the forces of globalization, agricultural industrialization, and botanical homogenization as the greatest threats to biodiversity in food crops as described by the contributing authors. The leviathan that is the capitalist system of provision imperils the specific varieties that have cropped up under the care of their human stewards, deeply influenced by the idiosyncrasies of distinct places. The title of this work begs another important question. How are place and agency implicated in biodiversity conservation? To this question the book provides a resounding answer that where biodiversity exists is indispensable to how it can be preserved. That is to say, conservation is not a predetermined set of prescriptions, but rather must take into consideration the social, ecological, political, economic, and cultural contours found in specific places. Contributing authors take up modes of conservation including ex situ (fortress style conservation in seed banks), in situ (conservation through continual cultivation or preservation of wild spaces), in vivo (living conservation), and trans situ (transplants of immigrants to new homes). Evincing a sense of ‘‘geopiety’’ (p. 245), (in)voluntarily displaced and marginalized people propagate a reterritorialization by planting the foods that they remember from their childhood, from their family, from their homeland. & Ashlee M. Adams ama354@psu.edu