Agrobiodiversity, Seed Conservation and Links to Traditional Culinary
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FOOD SOVEREIGNTY, GENDER AND TRANSITIONS IN TRADITIONAL CULINARY KNOWLEDGE IN THE CHINANTLA, OAXACA, MEXICO A Thesis Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Cornell University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science by Shoshana Devra Perrey May 2017 © 2017 Shoshana Devra Perrey ABSTRACT Over the last four decades, agrarian communities in Mexico have encountered various factors causing a transition from food self-reliance to dependence on industrial food supply chains. This shift has challenged these communities’ food sovereignty, that is, their right to determine their own food systems and those systems’ management on their own terms, free from external corporate intervention. Women’s rights and contributions to knowledge production are central to food sovereignty discourses, because food procurement, preparation, feeding, and teaching children about cooking traditions are largely the domain of agrarian women’s knowledge. To better understand the interrelated factors affecting these transitions, I will investigate how gendered experiences have changed over time in regards to: (1) traditional culinary knowledge (TCK), (2) seed conservation, (3) perceptions of agrobiodiversity, and (4) the underlying socio-political reasons for these changes. I chose to conduct a case study in the Chinantla region of Oaxaca, Mexico because it is a center of agrobiodiversity, and the territory is managed locally as “indigenous and community conserved areas”, both approaches that are supportive of the concept of food sovereignty. I conducted participant observation and 40 semi-structured household interviews with Chinanteco women and men. The interviews investigated adult family members’ opinions, experiences, and perspectives on changes and factors that have affected agrobiodiversity, seed conservation and TCK. Women and men who participated in this study indicated they have been saving and growing native seed in situ for family consumption and preparing traditional cuisine for generations, but that the last forty years have brought many changes. Research participants provided context-rich examples of cuisine that used native, heritage, wild, and non-native purchased foods, which I analyzed to demonstrate how transitions manifest in the reproduction i and heritability of TCK. With this data set, I comparatively analyze community-managed initiatives aimed at improved public health outcomes, seed conservation and the preservation of agrobiodiversity. I then discuss more broadly the implications of transitions in TCK as potential barriers to and possibilities for achieving food sovereignty. My findings reveal benefits for corporate food production at the expense of women’s knowledge and work. Women’s management of agrobiodiversity and TCK are disrupted by the influx of industrial foods. Further negative effects on agrobiodiversity and TCK were attributed to climate change, conservation zoning, highway construction, and nutrition program interventions. I argue that TCK is an important indicator of several other tenets of food sovereignty, namely agrobiodiversity, women’s equitable inclusion, locally controlled food systems management, and preservation of culturally-appropriate foods, but this has not received enough examination within current discourses. My case study provides examples of how food sovereignty and TCK diminish when women’s equitable inclusion in social and political concerns is not prioritized. Agrobiodiversity declines with the introduction of industrial foods through market-based sales and nutrition interventions. On a broader level, this research has important implications for nutrition development programs that target populations in “indigenous and community conserved areas”. My findings point to the significance of integrating native foods and traditional cuisine into environmental and nutrition development programs and their related curriculums, when working with indigenous communities. Finally, I suggest preventative measures to conserve heritage seed varieties that carry cultural and nutritional significance for indigenous farmers’ food production and TCK, thus moving them toward food sovereignty. ii BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH Shoshana is a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow who has field research experience in tropical agroecological farming with peer-to-peer family farmers residing in conservation zones and protect areas. Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, she developed a passion for northern California’s coastal bio-cultural diversity by accompanying her mother during sea urchin harvesting in Moss Beach, as a young girl. Before beginning college, Shoshana devoted herself to the environmental justice and food sovereignty movements by working with community groups on racial equality and improved health outcomes in segregated neighborhoods in San Francisco, CA and New Orleans, LA. Numerous international urban and rural farming experiences have deepened her research interests of food sovereignty, agroecology and cuisine in in California, New York, southern France, Madagascar, Galápagos, and Mexico. In Ithaca, NY, Shoshana is the owner and chef of Liberation Supper Club, a farm-to-table and wild foods catering service that cultivates a sense of place by telling the story of where food comes from. She helped start an organic blueberry u-pick farm CSA in Van Etten, NY. In Oakland, CA she has worked with Food First: Institute for Food and Development Policy, and applied her permaculture design skills to the Mills College Campus Farm. Following Hurricane Katrina, she contributed her first responder skills to collaborate and support grassroots organizations’ and residents’ restoration and return efforts in New Orleans, LA. In 2009, Shoshana’s baccalaureate thesis researched gender and food security in relation to fair trade certification of vanilla beans. On the volcanic island of Nosy Komba, Madagascar, she conducted interviews with women and men farmers in the Ambariovato Cooperative, a fishing and farming community that grew fair-trade certified vanilla in shaded polyculture, cooperative farms. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This research was funded by the AWARE IP-CALS Frosty Hill Grants for Graduate Research, Cornell University; the Richard Bradfield Award for Graduate Research, IP-CALS, Cornell University; Dr. Rachel Bezner Kerr’s Research Development Fund from the Polson Institute; and the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. I dedicate this work to the women and men of the Chinantla in Santa Cruz Tepetotutla, San Pedro Tlatepusco, and neighbors in San Antonio del Barrio. In Santa Cruz, I am indebted to my Research Assistant and Translator Veronica Osorio Timoteo, and her parents Don Pedro Osorio Osorio and Doña Filiberta Osorio Timoteo, for nourishing me with their heartfelt home cooking and guiding me through the forests and customs of the Chinantla. Thank you to CORENCHI President Celestino Osorio Osorio and Technicians Anabel and Javier. In San Pedro Tlatepusco, I am grateful to CORENCHI Technicians Carlos and Lucio. Additional thanks are extended to Supplemental Commissioner Maurelio Ferrer Martinez, and CORENCHI Technician Ernesto. I am eternally thankful to Raitamaria Mäki from the University of Helsinki, Finland, and for her review of drafts and our flourishing friendship. This research would not have been possible without Biologist Fernando Mondragón, founder of Geo Conservación and tireless advocate for the conservation of Chinantla biocultural diversity. Thank you to Biologists Jose Manuel Gutiérrez Marín, Jeidy Aparicio and Diego Armando Contreras Peralta. To my field research adviser Dr. Elvira Duran, of CIIDIR, thank you for advice on designing my interviews. Thanks to Nikki Hansen for transcription and translation. Special thanks are showered upon Steven Ikier for his technical support and dependable encouragement to dedicate myself to my writing. Finally, I am especially grateful to my Special Committee Dr. Rachel Bezner Kerr, Dr. Linda Williams and Dr. Karim-Aly Kassam for their expertise, support and patience. With all my gratitude, “Xochitl” iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ......................................................................................................................... i BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH ............................................................................................. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................................................................................. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS .................................................................................................... v LIST OF FIGURES .......................................................................................................... vii LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................... viii LIST OF PHOTOGRAPHS ............................................................................................... ix LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ............................................................................................ ix Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 1 Literature Review................................................................................................................ 7 Agrobiodiversity ............................................................................................................. 7 Social