Closest to Everlastin' Agrobiodiversity and Subsistence Traditions in the Ozarks, USA

Traditional subsistence systems frequently rely on multiple levels of agrobiodiversity to ensure sufficient food and medicine. Such agrobiodiverse subsistence strategies tend to occur in marginal landscapes where large-scale intensive agricultural systems cannot succeed. While most of the Ozark Highlands has advanced technologically, the karst topography of the region precludes most forms of intensive industrial agriculture, and it remains a haven for agrobiodiverse farmers and gardeners. Six years of agrobiodiversity conservation research in different subregions of the Arkansas and Missouri Ozarks reveals three clearly interconnected characteristics integral to traditional subsistence in the region: agroecological knowledge, diversity, and frugality. These values allowed Ozarkers of historical times to survive and they permit contemporary hill dwellers an alternative to the industrial food system. In this paper I use archival and ethnographic research to discuss the interrelationships between Ozark agrobiodiversity and subsistence patterns in the past and present, and I conclude with commentary on in situ conservation strategies.