Special Issue: The Conservation of Plant Genetic Resources
“The articles in this issue examine the strategies that farmers, scientists, and citizens use to “save” the things that matter to us (our seeds, our bodies, our farms, and our communities) in the midst of accelerating, human-induced environmental degradation. They investigate the ways that these actors imagine the future—the ways that they seek to preserve what they see as vital, prevent what they see as unacceptable, and (some-times) give in to what they see as unavoidable. The authors meticulously document the care that these actors invest in saving seeds, cultivating gardens, ensuring farm success, and documenting the information necessary for these things to be sustained (or resurrected) in an uncertain future.”
Introduction
“Saving” Plant Genetic Resources (& Ourselves) in a Time of Accelerating Ecological Change
// Megan Styles and Brandi Janssen
Special Issue Articles
Guest Editor: Helen Anne Curry
Introduction: The Collection and Conservation of Plant Genetic Resources, Past and Present
//Helen Anne Curry
Gene Banks, Seed Libraries, and Vegetable Sanctuaries: The Cultivation and Conservation of Heritage Vegetables in Britain, 1970–1985
//Helen Anne Curry
Creative Practices of Care: The Subjectivity, Agency, and Affective Labor of Preparing Seeds for Long‐term Banking
//Xan Sarah Chacko
“The First Step Is to Bring It Into Our Hands:” Wild Seed Conservation, the Stewardship of Species Survival, and Gardening the Anthropocene at the Millennium Seed Bank Partnership
//Kay E. Lewis‐Jones
Research Articles
The Place of Bitter Cassava in the Social Organization and Belief Systems of Two Indigenous Peoples of Guyana
//Janette Bulkan
Beyond Alternative Food Networks: Understanding Motivations to Participate in Orti Urbaniin Palermo
//Giuseppina Migliore, Pietro Romeo, Riccardo Testa, and Giorgio Schifani
Is the Emergence of the “Fresh Prep” Food Service Provider an Entrée into Local Foods?
//Thomas L. Henshaw
“Profitability” vs. “Making It:” Causes and Consequences of Disembedding Beginning Farms’ Finances
//Andrea Rissing
