2 de March de 2019 fern	Leave a comment
The Agri/Cultures.Seed-Links Exhibition is seeking visual art works that celebrate the bonds between biological and cultural diversity in agri-food systems
In June 2019, a new shipment of seeds will arrive at the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. This deep cavern carved inside a frozen mountain on the Arctic island of Svalbard currently holds over 1 million samples of the world's seeds. In June, when the new deposit arrives, a collection of artworks will also be interred in the mountain alongside them. This exhibition will serve as a reminder that seeds live within vast webs of interrelations – ecological, socio-technical and cultural – and that these connections are also worthy of celebration and preservation
The Svalbard Global Seed Vault holds a global collection of seeds from all around the world. It stores 'back-up' copies in case disaster (fire, flood, civil war) strikes the genebanks holding the original seeds. The only withdrawal from the Vault so far has been by ICARDA, a genebank based in Aleppo,
Syria. With over 1 million seed samples now stored on Svalbard, the Global Seed Vault is an incredible achievement of science and diplomacy. However, this incredible effort to preserve the biological diversity of seeds, omits the rich cultural diversity required to generate and maintain this agricultural biodiversity. The Agri/Cultures.Seed-Links Exhibition aims to celebrate and honor the fertile bonds between biological and cultural diversity in agri-food systems.
Artists are asked to submit proposals for visual art works that speak to the bio-cultural connections in
agriculture and the links seeds have to communities and culture. Any archival medium is welcome, but the works must fit within 60x40x28cm – the size of the black plastic boxes used to store seed deposits in the Vault.
The selection of works will take place in two tiers. 1) Three to four artists will be identified as the primary artists who will be offered sponsorship to travel to Longyearbyen, Svalbard to attend the exhibition, speak about their work, and to physically inter their original artwork in the mountain that houses the Global Seed Vault. 2) A number of additional artists will be invited to submit high resolution images of their artwork for archival printing, exhibition in Longyearbyen, and inclusion in a group box that will be interred in the mountain site.
The event in Longyearbyen will also include a presentation from the manager of the Seed Vault and a film screening from last year's deposit of artworks. During a closing reception, artists will pack down their works and seal them inside their black boxes. The following day, the sealed boxes of artworks will be delivered for permanent "interment" in the mountain alongside the Vault. The artworks will be placed at the original site of seed deposits within the mountain, in an inactive coalmine. This will be the second deposit of artworks as part of an ongoing effort to establish a unique museum for the forgotten stories of seeds.
Details for How to Get Involved
The whole event is planned to take place between 7-10 June 2019.
A select number of original artworks will be deposited. For these, sponsorships will be available for the artists to cover the costs of travel to/from and accommodation in Svalbard for the exhibition. For secondary selections, high quality prints will be made of the works and these will join a collective box for exhibition and deposit.
To be considered for selection and sponsorship, please submit a 200-500 word statement of purpose (describing yourself and your proposed project) a CV, and relevant examples of your work (or website where examples of work can be seen). These application documents should be sent to [email protected] before March 25th 2019.
Selected artists will be notified by April 12th 2019.
GM in Spain (infographic)
12 de November de 2017 amaranta	Leave a comment
Last week we collectively worked on creating an infographic that captured in a single image the main issues around GM Maize in Spain. Of course, as any infographic, it just highlights some of the relevant dimensions of the controversy of GM crops in Spain. But we think it can help to understand what is going on in the European country with higher number of cultivated area of GM crops. Actually, it is both a simplified, visual and updated version of what we tell in the section "Spain, a telltale case of the impossibility of coexistence" of our paper Just Existing is Resisting: The Everyday Struggle against the expansion of GM Crops in Spain.
It is also an infographic to be used in the interactive website we are preparing in which we are condensing much of the knowledge we have acquired through all these years of agri/cultures research.
Below you can see the result. Please, share it widely!
Agricultural biotechnologiesagrifood systemGM maizeGMOsinfographicinteractive website
Engaging in Science Journalism
12 de July de 2016 amaranta	1 Comment
Two weeks ago we started our writing retreat in one of the beautiful boathouses on Regents Canal, in London. Since we are almost obsessed about improving the ways science is communicated to the rest of society, we signed up for a short Masterclass at The Guardian on scientific journalism. In fact, I think the target audience was journalists rather than scientists, but below I list some things we learned:
Before writing:
Think of your reader. Really. Do it. Ask yourself, who is going to read this? and How long can you expect them to read your piece?
Don't think about educating your public on science as your primary goal.
Think more about stimulating, entertaining and amusing your audience through a story. And if there's learning as a side effect, great!
When writing:
Choose short words over long words.
Avoid clichés and familiar metaphors. Invent fresh ways to express yourself instead.
If you can cut a word, do it.
Use active voice, not passive.
Only use jargon when there is no alternative.
What makes a good story?
It is relevant to me/family/friends (e.g news-you-can-use, health issues stories…)
It includes 'wow' facts that people want to tell their friends at the pub/on twitter…
It is important – even if possibly not that interesting to most people.
Something I really missed from The Guardian Masterclass was to have some examples of journalists reporting to research and findings from the social sciences (e.g Anthropology, Sociology, Social Psychology…), and, specifically, using qualitative methodologies. The unity of knowledge is formed by many scientific disciplines, including also the study of human communities. In fact, comprehending why human societies do what they do is critical in order to understand the huge challenges of contemporary times, namely the global ecological crisis in all its multiple expressions. Scientific journalism has a wide field open to explore in creating new ways to communicate this social scientific knowledge too.
public communication of sciencescientific communicationstorytelling
Responsible Governance of (New) Agricultural Biotechnologies
23 de May de 2016 fern	Leave a comment
In an earlier post, I described an international workshop we held in November 2015 with experts on risk assessment, responsible innovation and ethics of agricultural biotechnology. Happily, I can now report that our learning from that worskhop has been available for everybody in the form of a publication in the journal PLoS Biology.
In the published paper, entitled "Essential Features of Responsible Governance of Agricultural Biotechnology" we argue that changes to the governance of agricultural biotechnologies have become particularly urgent as new genomic tools and products (such as CRISPR-Cas9, RNAi, synthetic biology, and GM animals) continue to emerge and controversies surrounding GM crops remain unresolved.
What we have seen is that much of the current debate around these new genomic tools and products is focused on whether or not they fit within existing regulatory frameworks. This is no doubt a very important debate that will have significant consequences no matter which way nations decide. However, it is also important to question whether or not the existing regulatory frameworks are sufficient for addressing the issues that continue to generate controversy in this field. Since they have not been capable of allieviating controversy around GM crops, we argue that the new wave of biotechnologies provides a useful opportunity to revise not just our specific regulatory frameworks but also our general approach to governance so as to make it more socially robust and ethically responsible.
Integrating findings from both our dedicated workshop and several decades of work within social studies of science and procedural ethics, we propose five features that are essential to advance responsible governance of agricultural biotechnology. These essential features are:
Commitment to candour
Recognition of underlying values and assumptions
Involvement of a broad range of knowledge and actors
Consideration of a range of alternatives
Preparedness to respond.
Each of these are outlined in more detail in the paper, where we also give specific examples of how social scientists have been working to advance these features in technology governance. In doing so we seek to show how ideas from several fields can be fruitfully integrated into a common framework to advance scientifically and socially responsible forms of governance for both existing and emerging agricultural biotechnologies.
Published in an open access journal, we hope that you might find this paper interesting and encourage you to share it with friends and colleagues. Of course, we would also welcome your questions and feedback!
agricultural biotechnologybiotechnologyCRISPRgenome editinggovernanceresponsible innovation
Talk on maize for human consumption in Lleida (Catalonia – Spain)
16 de May de 2016 amaranta	Leave a comment
On Wednesday 4th May the Agri/Cultures Project attended a talk on maize for human consumption (aka non-GM maize) in Lleida. Below you can read a short chronicle of this experience.
Everything began when Comú de Lleida, a political group from the city of Lleida, suggested the agricultural land around Lleida be declared GM-free. Farmers from the area (where GM maize is widely cultivated) who are very concerned about what this suggestion could entail, responded that non-GM maize did not actually offer many opportunities for them. El Comú de Lleida organised a talk about why some farmers choose to sow non-GM maize and the commercial possibilities that this maize could offer. They invited two main speakers from the neighboring region of Aragon, a farmer from the farmers cooperative Joaquin Costa, in the neighbouring region of Aragon, and a representative from Liven Agro, one of the main companies producing non-GM maize in that neighbouring region too. The audience was made up of approximately 30 farmers, including several representatives of the main agrarian trade unions.
The company representative gave a commercial presentation about how they are encouraging farmers to produce non-GM maize for them. They pay more for non-GM maize and they also offer monitoring, harvesting machinery and transport vehicles for free. According to this representative, this was encouraging farmers to embrace non-GM maize production and work with them.
The trade union representatives, on the other hand, while opposing the GM-free initiative, were pointing out that in the fields 'there was room for everyone' and that decisions on whether cultivating GM or non-GM should only be driven by economic criteria.
Juanjo Mallén, farmer from the cooperative Joaquin Costa
To me, the best intervention by far was Juanjo Mallen, from the farmer cooperative Joaquin Costa. He told us the story of his cooperative and how it's approach had evolved regarding GM maize. As a cooperative, they embraced and started producing GM maize when it was first introduced, in 1998. After some years, while distrusting the GM hype, they started developing their own agricultural trials and realised that GM varieties are not actually more productive than non-GM varieties. During this process they also increasingly informed themselves on the scientific controversies and uncertainties surrounding GM crops. And as a result (and because there was a company willing to buy non-GM maize), they decided to produce non-GM maize. It has really worked well for them. He pointed out that non-GM maize varieties are more inclusive because it is not true that 'there is room for everyone'. Non-GM maize, and especially organic maize, can suffer the consequences of GM contamination and lose a market, or a certification. In fact, he mentioned that wherever there is GM maize, organic maize disappears. By focusing on non-GM maize, he added, some of the farmers of his cooperative could aspire to produce organic maize again, which was very good news.
Lastly, he pointed out that it was important to realise the paradigmatic differences implied in the different ways of understanding and doing agriculture that were being discussed. One prioritised more isolation and controllability of the different parts of the agricultural ecosystem and the other valued more interconnection and interdependency. To give an example, he told us how his own perception of weeds had changed from seeing them as something undesirable to be eradicated to considering them as a bio-indicator of the agricultural ecosystem. His point of view is that, more research and more political will should be encouraged in order to explore and promote ways of farming without agro-toxics.
In the end, I don't think it is likely that the agricultural land around Lleida will be declared GM-free, as many farmers were still not convinced, but it was an interesting debate in which it was obvious that there was a clash between antagonistic cultures of agriculture.
agricultural paradigmsAragónCataloniafieldworkGM contaminationGM maizeGM-freeMaize for human consumptionorganic maizeSpain
Seminar on Critical Perspectives on GMOs at Cape Town University
26 de April de 2016 rosabinimelis	Leave a comment
The last two weeks we have been in South Africa. It has been truly a very insightful experience that has helped us understand slightly better some of the complex realities that shape maize production in this amazing country. During the first week, we visited three very different small-scale farming communities in Kwazulu Natal, and for the second week we traveled to Cape Town to have our team meeting and to participate in two seminars at the University of Cape Town.
The first seminar was with postgraduate students conducting research related to GMOs in South Africa. It was a really interesting session that allowed us to share our own experiences with other researchers working on this topic from different perspectives and contexts. It also helped us us very much to better understand the functioning of the food systems where GM maize has been introduced in the country, the driving forces, circumstances and changes produced. Finally, we also focused on the ethical implications of our research, our challenges and strategies.
The second seminar was titled "Critical perspectives on GMOs", and was organised by the Bio-economy Chair at the University of Cape Town.
The seminar brought together different critical perspectives on the analysis and assessment of GMOs. The session was chaired by Rachel Wynberg from the University of Cape Town and Maya's PhD co-supervisor. First, Fern Wickson presented her paper on exploring the advantages of using feminist care ethics lens for the assessment of agricultural biotechnology. Following this presentation, the three other presentations explored the concept of resistance related to GM crops from very different approaches. In the second talk, I discussed the emergence of glyphosate-resistant Johnsongrass and the situation in relation with herbicide-resistant weeds in Argentina by analysing the driving forces behind the initial spread of GR johnsongrass, its impacts and the social, economic and environmental implications of response strategies, including the institutional conditions and constraints involved. Then, professor Johnnie van den Bergh from the Northwest University explored the insect resistance in Bt GM crops in South Africa, its consequences for the future use of Bt maize and for the conservation of heirloom seeds. It was very interesting to see many coincidences in the processes of resistance evolution in both cases, as well as in the responses given to it. Finally Amaranta Herrero introduced a paper we are currently working on the everyday forms of human resistance to the expansion of GM maize by exploring the often no-visible practices of farmers and other actors practicing non-GM agriculture in Spain.
The seminar ended with a vivid round of question and discussions, and a shared lunch. It was again a great opportunity for us to share our research and to learn from all the assistants at the seminar.
Agricultural biotechnologiescoexistenceconferenceethicsGM cropsscientific communicationSouth Africa
We are doing fieldwork in South Africa!
19 de April de 2016 amaranta	Leave a comment
agrifood systemGM maizeSouthafricatraditional seed varieties
Undisciplined Environments and Food as Commons
4 de April de 2016 amaranta	Leave a comment
Two weeks ago I attended the Undisciplined Environments Conference, aka the International Conference of the European Network of Political Ecology, in Stockholm.
Activists from all over the world and scholars from a wide range of disciplines met over four days to discuss the political intersections between environmental and societal issues. I went to present on the Spanish socio-environmental conflicts represented in the Environmental Justice Atlas, with an emphasis on the conflict we are now researching in detail: GM crops.
Some of the presentations were great. Kim Tallbear gave a talk during a plenary on post-colonisation studies, indigenous feminism and the role of technoscience in the colonisation of indigenous peoples and others. She talked about multi-species ethnographies and presented some of the traits of the indigenous ontologies, which usually exceed the dominating binomial (and hierarchical) categorisation of reality (e.g male-female, culture-nature…), and pointed out to the ability of non-human beings and things to co-construct reality. This strongly resonated with the process of following maize through the food web and the actants of The Agri/Cultures Project.
Also, Ugo Mattei gave an interesting talk about his latest book, "The ecology of law". In this book, Ugo Mattei and Fritjof Capra, they explore the intimate links and alignments between the mechanistic science and the making of modern law. They argue that the perception of the world as a "machine-world" (with its controllable, replaceable and disconnected parts) has profoundly shaped modern law and its main pillars (individual, private property, State sovereignty) and this is also deeply responsible for the global ecological crisis we face. They state that a paradigmatic shift regarding law is urgently needed and put forward the idea of The Commons as a key aspect of this shift (the commons as a legal institution). Its potential relies on transcending traditional public-private property dichotomies and putting more emphasis on the power of communities.
In fact, the commons was a concept very present throughout the conference. I attended a presentation about food as commons that inspired me to want to explore this thread in relation to our project (e.g food as commons or, perhaps, more specifically, seeds as commons). In my view, the commons are not just resources. The commons are intimately involved with all living beings as they are also part of the web of life. They shape and are shaped by reality (in fact, our lives depend on their health) and they are at the heart of many heated conflicts worldwide.
This is just the beginning of a thread that I hope to keep building on but… do you know of any interesting work done on 'seeds as commons´ or 'food as commons' with an ecologically-inspired perspective?
actantCommonsconferencemulti-species ethnographypolitical ecology