Freezing Seeds and Making Futures: Endangerment, Hope, Security, and Time in Agrobiodiversity Conservation Practices

Abstract

This paper considers the temporal practices inherent in the work of global agrobiodiversity conservation, drawing on ongoing research with the Nordic Genetic Resource Centre and the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. It contrasts the distinctive, future-making practices inherent in the work of ex situ cold seed storage, with the normative, entropic view of the relationship of species diversity with time that arises from the field of biodiversity conservation more generally. These differences point to the value of comparative studies of natural and cultural heritage conservation practices that focus on their politics and ontologies to reveal the heterogeneity of approaches across these fields, and the different worlds they each produce in conserving their endangered objects for the future.

Creative Practices of Care: The Subjectivity, Agency, and Affective Labor of Preparing Seeds for Long‐term Banking

“…The history of seed banking as a global conservation practice has recently captured the attention of scholars who are creating a rich tapestry of knowledge to better understand its emergence and implications (Curry ; Fenzi and Bonneuil ; Harrison ). Little attention has been paid, however, to the immense labor that is involved in the maintenance of life in perpetuity.…”

Introduction: The Collection and Conservation of Plant Genetic Resources, Past and Present

“…In the intervening decade, the Svalbard Global Seed Vault has achieved an iconic status in the popular press and academic circles. Its spartan, snowbound façade inspires art and film and illustrates countless magazine spreads about the endangerment of crop diversity and the salvation offered by the “doomsday vault.” Meanwhile, scholars have plumbed the vault's existence for insights into contemporary conservation (e.g., Alpsancar ; Harrison ; Wickson ).…”

From ark to bank: extinction, proxies and biocapitals in ex-situ biodiversity conservation practices

“…The conservation of non-human animal species and their natural habitats as an 'insurance' measure in the present is, however, not only directed at 'what-could-become'an imminent presentbut is equally, if not primarily, directed towards actively intervening in the production of more or less distant futures. Within this context, biobanks are future-making institutions (Harrison 2017) that have the potential to create new ecological, social and economic realities. Indeed, such biobanks are 'live archives' and actively intervene within the assumed entropic relationship between diversity loss and time (e.g.…”

“…Indeed, such biobanks are 'live archives' and actively intervene within the assumed entropic relationship between diversity loss and time (e.g. Radin 2015;Chrulew 2017;293;Harrison 2017), producing multiple dormant possibilities or, what Joanna Radin has called 'latent futures ' (2013).…”