Environmental for Food Justice

Below there are women and men who study science, who study scientifically, who do good science. But the wicked capitalists come along and use this science to do harm to the very people who discovered that science. What kind of harm? They use science to make the rich richer. The rich use it as they choose, for a destiny other than that for which it was created. They use it to kill and destroy. - Zapatista Plenary Declaration on ConSciences Moderator’s Note: In a recent conversation with a close friend, the issue of how different people conceptualize “nature” came up in the context of a discussion of the March for Science. First of all, I suggested that this does not involve a “binary” problem (e.g., pro- or anti-nature; pro- or anti-science); instead this is a spectrum with a spectral cast. There are several paradigms operating in different cultural communities (with distinct political projects) and these differ markedly in how they define “nature” or the “environment”— be mindful, all...

Cartoon sketch courtesy of  People and Nature . Racism; blindness to capitalism in science communities allows continued exposure and risk disparities A FAILURE TO CONFRONT RACISM and CAPITALIST CONTROL OF SCIENCE UNDERMINES TIES TO OTHER MOVEMENTS The quest for gold brought to light many useful inventions and advanced society in innumerable ways. -Sir Francis Bacon I consider myself an “ethno-scientist.” The methods and practices I follow in the fields of agroecology, ethnoecology, and related areas reflect my grounding in millennia of indigenous knowledge and study of ecological processes in the human-nature interrelationship. The two cultures divide that C. P. Snow lamented because it separates the humanities from the natural sciences remains a central concern for me as a practitioner of community-based collaborative and interdisciplinary research. Yet, I am not marching today. And it is not because I am anti-science. I am against continued widespread reductionism of and in scien...

Photographs of Mesoamerican vegetables, fruits, tubers, and grains courtesy of  La Jornada del Campo . Restoring heritage cuisines begins with native crops & how we grow them RETURNING AMARANTH TO ITS RIGHTFUL PLACE IN THE THREE SISTERS-PLUS COMPLEX Devon G. Peña | Seattle, WA | April 16, 2017 Today’s post is part of a continuing series on the discourse and practice of what my colleagues—among them Luz Calvo and Catriona Esquibel—call the decolonial diet . From our vantage points as farmers, gardeners, and cooks, the decolonial diet begins with the native crops we grow in the garden or milpa (subsistence farm or garden plot). How we grow them is also a vital factor. For example, annual native crops like corn, bean and squash are companion plants and should also be cultivated with perennial biodynamic herbaceous plants. This biodynamic approach is a vital factor maintaining the ecological health of the soil and thus the nutrient density and chemical composition of the crops. ...