Seed saving

Abstract: Seed saving is a historical cultural phenomenon that dates back to the beginning of agriculture itself. Seeds, because of their unique characteristics – the seed contains within itself the means for its own reproduction – have offered a particularly large stumbling block to capital accumulation. In the US, intellectual property rights legislation and Supreme Court decisions have played a profound role in overcoming these unique characteristics and have made it possible for input supply companies to extract more profit from the farm production process. Our analysis of the historical seed-saving practices of soybean farmers in the US indicates that large farms have consistently saved seed in the US – as much as 60 per cent in some years. However, with the introduction of Roundup Ready® soybeans the nature of seed saving was drastically changed. We argue that the combination of expanding intellectual property rights, ‘new’ GM technology, and the ideology of the technological treadmill have successfully overcome seeds’ inherent obstacles to capitalist accumulation. In capitalising nature's production, Monsanto and other leading seed corporations have been able to incur massive profits from the licensing of commercial seed supplies. As a result, US farmers are facing further loss of control of the farm production process.

Abstract: Saving More Than Seeds advances understandings of seed-people relations, with particular focus on seed saving. The practice of reusing and exchanging seeds provides foundation for food production and allows humans and seed to adapt together in dynamic socionatural conditions. But the practice and its practitioners are easily taken for granted, even as they are threatened by neoliberalisation. Combining original ethnographic research with investigation of an evolving corporate seed order, this book reveals seed saving not only as it occurs in fields and gardens but also as it associates with genebanking, genetic engineering, intellectual property rights, and agrifood regulations. Drawing on diverse social sciences literatures, Phillips illustrates ongoing practices of thinking, feeling, and acting with seeds, raising questions about what seed-people relations should accomplish and how different ways of relating might be pursued to change collective futures.