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Heirloom and Hybrid Corn in the American Corn Belt: an Ethnography of Seed Saving Practices

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Heirloom and Hybrid Corn in the American Corn Belt: an Ethnography of Seed Saving Practices University of Wisconsin Milwaukee UWM Digital Commons Theses and Dissertations December 2019 Heirloom and Hybrid Corn in the American Corn Belt: an Ethnography of Seed Saving Practices Rachelle Halaska University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.uwm.edu/etd Part of the Agriculture Commons, Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons, and the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Halaska, Rachelle, "Heirloom and Hybrid Corn in the American Corn Belt: an Ethnography of Seed Saving Practices" (2019). Theses and Dissertations. 2307. https://dc.uwm.edu/etd/2307 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by UWM Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of UWM Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. HEIRLOOM AND HYBRID CORN IN THE AMERICAN CORN BELT: AN ETHNOGRAPHY OF SEED SAVING PRACTICES by Rachelle Halaska A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Anthropology at The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee December 2019 ABSTRACT HEIRLOOM AND HYBRID CORN IN THE AMERICAN CORN BELT: AN ETHNOGRAPHY OF SEED SAVING PRACTICES by Rachelle Margaret Halaska The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 2019 Under the Supervision of Professor Tracey Heatherington This ethnographic study examines the practices and context of contemporary heirloom corn seed saving practices and projects in the American Corn Belt. It examines heirloom corn conservation and hand pollination practices at Seed Savers Exchange in Decorah, Iowa in 2015. From there the study extends to interviews with heirloom farmers, breeders and gardeners in Wisconsin and Illinois. The findings indicate that the lines between the mainstream and the margins of corn production are highly blurred, and that there is a considerable amount of cross- pollination of ideas and practices between alternative corn farming and dominant industrial hybrid production in the American Corn Belt as they exist in proximity and utilize similar public spaces and resources. The results of these cross-pollinations of ideas are differing visions of sustainability that farmers, breeders and seed savers use to frame their heirloom corn growing projects and maintain the marginal spaces required for them to grow in the Corn Belt. The author explores the histories of hybrids and heirlooms in the Corn Belt and the contemporary evolution of USDA Organic Corn Production to illustrate this point. ii © Copyright by Rachelle Halaska, 2019 All Rights Reserved iii Dedicated to my Grandmother, Margaret “Peggy” Jeffrey. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ........................................................................................................................................... ii List of Figures ............................................................................................................................... vii Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................................ ix Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 1:The Creation of Modern Corn ...................................................................................... 17 Chapter 2: Seed Savers Exchange ................................................................................................ 40 A History of Seed Savers Exchange ......................................................................................... 40 Internship in the Preservation Department ............................................................................... 57 Part 1: Maintaining the Heirloom in The Preservation Department ......................................... 59 Work in the Preservation Department................................................................................... 67 Part 2: Corn Hand Pollination ................................................................................................... 97 The Basics of Corn, Bagging, Bulking and Hand Pollinating .............................................. 99 The Joys and Irritations of Diversity .................................................................................. 108 Pod Corn ............................................................................................................................. 117 Conclusion of some kind .................................................................................................... 126 Chapter 3: Growing and Saving Corn ......................................................................................... 132 Kathleen Plunkett Black ......................................................................................................... 133 Professor Bill Tracy ................................................................................................................ 139 Dr. Walter Goldstein ............................................................................................................... 145 Bill Davidson .......................................................................................................................... 150 Marty Travis............................................................................................................................ 157 v Andy Hazzard ......................................................................................................................... 168 Conclusion: Networks of Production ...................................................................................... 178 Chapter 4: Producing Organic Corn ........................................................................................... 188 The organic movement and USDA Organic ........................................................................... 190 Working on a Certified Organic Farm: How Organic Regulations are Enacted in Daily Practices .................................................................................................................................. 200 Processes of Inclusion and Exclusion ..................................................................................... 211 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................. 239 Glossary ...................................................................................................................................... 250 References………………………………………………………………………………………257 Appendix : Accessions Policy to Guide the Acquisition and Management of Plant Material in Seed Savers Exchange’s Preservation Collection (Seed Bank and Vegetative/Clonal Plant Repository)……………………………………………………………………………………..267 vi LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. SSE Preservation Department staff members, Phil and Steffen, giving a class on garlic at the 2015 Conference and Campout ............................................................................................54 Figure 2. Conversation and discussion about garlic. .....................................................................54 Figure 3: Steffen discussing garlic with one of the younger class participants. ............................54 Figure 4: Eval Lettuce grow out.. ..................................................................................................77 Figure 5: Drawing of framing for Agribon tunnel .........................................................................85 Figure 6: Drawing of Agribon tunnel protecting the seedlings. ....................................................86 Figure 7: Counting years the cucumbers were offered in the Exchange. ......................................93 Figure 8: Alex and Connor with Mandan Nuetta ...........................................................................99 Figure 9: Mandan Red with shoot bag.. .......................................................................................101 Figure 10: Mandan Red's super pretty purple tassels ..................................................................102 Figure 11: Mandan Red. Lower brown bags are covering pollinated ears that are marked with orange flag tape indicating they are part of the same pollination. ...............................................106 Figure 12: Indian Blue Corn. .......................................................................................................112 Figure 13: Connor securing bag after pollination on Beasley’s Whittley County Corn ..............116 Figure 14: Bloody Butcher being very tall. .................................................................................116 Figure 15: Alex and Connor working with Mandan Nuetta ........................................................116 Figure 16: Alex showing me some fasciated corn .......................................................................117 Figure 17: Alex holding pod corn (left) and a non-pod corn ear (right). .....................................118 Figure 18: The flint corn composites have pointier kernels while the dent corn (1st and 3rd ears) have kernels with the top sucked in ............................................................................................151 Figure 19: Figure 20 Bill Davidson's composites continued. Davidson wanted to show me the breadth of the diversity that he was working with .......................................................................152
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