Tenth International Conference on Food Studies

Abstract

At the heart of campesino agricultural systems–indeed, all food production systems–is the humble seed. Seeds contain the technical and cultural knowledge of farming communities, accumulated over generations. When there is autonomous control over a food system, campesino farmers can opt to save and grow their own seeds, thus reproducing those ancestral materials and values, while exercising control over the social and economic conditions underpinning their food systems. In spite of the threats posed to seed sovereignty by climate change, urbanization, land alienation, and neoliberal agricultural development strategies, many indigenous and campesino communities are actively working to (re)valorize their traditional food and seed systems using a variety of innovative tools to assert an endogenous vision for community food sovereignty. This research explores how seed sovereignty is being practiced and articulated by campesino farmers in the community of Laderas Norte in Tarija, Bolivia. I look at how seed use has changed over time, and explore the potential for a creative undermining of colonial modernity through the exercise of community seed sovereignty. Situating community understandings of seed sovereignty within the socio-political dynamics in which they are embedded, is critical to supporting the implementation of innovative institutional arrangements that can help communities realize their visions for autonomous seed systems.