CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2015
| Author | Ana, Daniela Elena |
|---|---|
| Title | Unfreezing the Seed: State, Expertise and Patriotism at the Suceava Gene Bank |
| Summary | This paper explores how the current crop diversity conservation strategy at the Suceava Gene Bank in Romania took shape in the light of the agricultural policies carried out by the state, as well as the global transformations in agriculture and food chains. Through ethnographic fieldwork I identify practices and actors that led to a non-typical genetic material conservation strategy performed at the Bank. I argue that a sense of responsibility driven equally by expert knowledge and patriotism led the conservationists at Suceava to reintroduce traditional crops in Romania through a yearly seed distribution campaign. This form of “horticultural patriotism” (Comaroff and Comaroff, 2012) took shape in a paradoxical environment; first, the expert discourse becomes extended with cultural arguments. Secondly, on the background of this story lies the Romanian state which considerably withdrew its support from agricultural research in the post-socialist decades. Additionally, I analyse a similar conservation initiative carried out by grassroots association EcoRuralis, where the absence of the state yielded a more radical discourse, that of food sovereignty. Finally, voices of traditional seed cultivators reveal similar concerns and convictions towards industrial and respectively, traditional production of food. |
| Supervisor | Naumescu, Vlad; Aistara, Guntra |
| Department | Sociology MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2015/ana_daniela.pdf |
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