Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

Seeds are an intrinsic part of our cultural and agricultural heritage and has been saved and cultivated for generations. Today farmers and food growers across the world have lost the practice and surrounding knowledge of seed saving due to the industrialisation and commodification of agriculture. In particular in the global north where this process began and is more prevalent. As a reaction, a seed sovereignty movement, spearheaded by La Via Campesina (LVC), a global coalition, has led campaigns and worked for the access and right to seeds. In countries where there is no such organisation or where seed saving culture has fallen out of the majority's shared memory, less is known about the extent of the seed saving, how it is carried out and organised.
The phenomenon of seed saving and its related culture and organisation, has been explored as a Multi Sited Ethnographic Study to be able to find the scattered communities and individuals working with seeds. It has been applied as a case study, to explore the situation in Sweden. Sweden, as here, little information is publicly available on the extent and organisation of seed saving.

To make sense of the empirical data the theory Communities of Practice(CoP) has been applied. This theory has allowed for understanding the communities and the domain of seed saving, how and why, people engage in the practice and how a culture is created. CoP also allows for understanding the wider context and world that the communities act within and is a reaction to. Field visits, semi structured interviews and collected material has been gathered as an observer-participant by the researcher.

The analysis presents an overview of the domain of seed saving, the main actors and communities that act within it. The analysis and result offer an understanding of the specific context of Sweden that has motivated the participants of the domain to engage in a practice. It states that there is not a united organisation of seed savers, instead there is a multitude of CoP’s, all working towards seed sovereignty for varied reasons.

Their practices are wide, diverse and mirror the agroecological landscape. In relation to the seeds, diverse types of plants and crops are included, old varieties and those suitable for Swedish climate and changing food habits. In relation to practices: farmers, researchers, hobby growers, artists, scientists, consultants are among the included perspectives. The commercial sector and grassroots perspective are represented, as are science-based solutions together with artistic and more intuitive practices.

This study is significant as it attempts to map and understand the wider domain of seed saving practice, which has not (knowingly) been done previously. Neither in Sweden or found in the literature, where other studies focus on a specific actor or community within the domain. The analysis of the future that participants wish for suggests that there is potential for seed sovereignty to gain momentum.