Food Systems and Agrobiodiversity
Food Systems and Agrobiodiversity
Session Type:
Oral
Session Date and Time:
Friday, 22 May, 2026 - 09:00 to 12:00
Presentations
Abstract
09:00
Presentation Format:
Oral (in-person)
Berries are the most harvested and valued plant food in Arctic and sub-Arctic communities and are cultural keystone species in the North. Despite deep cultural significance and sustained use across generations, the relationships among berries and people in Arctic regions continue to be underexplored in published research. In this paper, we consider the ways in which people relate to berries and promote berrying in ‘cold’ places using a case study from a sub-Arctic community: Dillingham, Alaska. We posit that the environmental elements of cold climates and the ways that climate extremes shape plant stature and growth ultimately shape the ways people steward plants and landscapes. Interviews with 42 berry pickers identified 29 different practices of berry stewardship. We show how stewardship and berry relationships are shaped by the climatic and ecological conditions of a place, and we identify aspects of berry stewardship and relations unique to northern and cold regions.
09:20
Presentation Format:
Oral (in-person)
This study examined plant use and cultivation practices of the Mayangna, an economically impoverished indigenous group in northern Nicaragua. Agroforestry systems were subsistence-based and important sources of food, building materials, fuel and medicinal plants, game animals and in some cases sources of income. Homegardens were found to be an important source of medicinal, food and spiritual plants, and varied greatly in their size and diversity of useful species. The species composition, use and management practices of both agroforestry systems and homegardens were also influenced by mestizo and indigenous Miskito practices. Surveys of local mestizo homegardens were also conducted to provide comparisons to Mayangna practices. Urbanization and the impacts of gold mining are strong socioeconomic pressures that have pulled Mayangna away from farming and forest use. Climate change and the disruption of seasonal rainfall patterns further exacerbate the situation in an area that is experiencing rapid deforestation and land invasions.
09:40
Presentation Format:
Oral (virtual)
What can cookbooks reveal when viewed as historical sources? In two courses I developed assignments around investigating cookbooks as primary sources. In a lower division history class, "Historical Methods", I designed the class around the sources and methods of food history, including: cookbooks, diaries, ships' logs, oral traditions, and even recipes chiseled onto gravestones. In this class I assign questions about historical cookbooks held in Special Collections at SFU Library. These questions build knowledge of the work and build student confidence to make inferences about overt and implied meanings and what the work says about the historical era. In an upper division class, I crafted an assignment that encourages deeper thematic analysis, allowing students to ponder, for example, what "healthy" is defined as, why "quick and easy" has become a popular recipe ambition, and how authors locate authority. Both assignments develop appreciation for cookbooks as sources of social histories.
10:00
Presentation Format:
Oral (in-person)
This study aims to reconstruct Haudenosaunee food systems along the Oneida River, in Onondaga territory, the area known today as central New York. Using paleoecology, archaeological data, historical documents, botanical records, ethnography, and other sources, we compiled data into a hypothetical seasonal round economy around the time of European contact (1600). The Oneida River provides a microcosm of the bounty locally available, while speaking also to the damage wrought by settler terraforming. Onondaga people had access to diverse, abundant, and highly nutritious calorie sources, despite seasonal challenges. When Europeans arrived in the area, they gushed over the flora, fauna, and water before proceeding to dismantle the very ecosystems that kept water clean and life abundant. This story can inspire and direct restoration efforts. It also brings attention to land justice efforts due to the centrality of extensive land base and healthy ecosystems needed to maintain these kinds of foodways.
10:40
Presentation Format:
Oral (virtual)
Socioecological networks act as mechanisms for the circulation of knowledge and propagules in traditional communities, playing a central role in coping with environmental adversities in agricultural systems. This study investigates the adaptive responses of the vazanteiros of Quilombo da Lapinha, in Brazil, in the face of climate and socioenvironmental changes. It is based on the hypothesis that centrality in exchange networks, richness of managed species, and pluriactivity favor permanence in the territory. Through participant observation, interviews, and guided tours with 30 vazanteiros, seven vulnerability scenarios were presented, involving territorial conflicts, scarcity of natural and agricultural resources, and changes in water availability. The hypotheses were corroborated. A strong adherence to pluriactivity was identified, with an average management of 25.7 species, predominance of creole seeds, and strategies of rotation and on farm conservation. The majority 80 percent indicated permanence, highlighting hydrodependence, ancestry, and collectivity as foundations of resistance, climate justice, and the fight against environmental racism.
11:00
Presentation Format:
Oral (in-person)
This presentation examines how agrobiodiversity conservation is enacted and negotiated in everyday agricultural practices in the Chiloé Archipelago, Chile, a global center of potato diversity. Drawing on ongoing ethnographic fieldwork conducted between January–March 2025 and January–March 2026, I explore how Chilote farmers engage with state-led and international conservation initiatives that promote in situ agrobiodiversity conservation through the circulation of native potato varieties. I focus in particular on recent projects that reintroduce virus-free native potatoes from germplasm banks into homegardens, tracing how these scientifically standardized tubers reshape local practices of cultivation, care, and exchange. While such initiatives seek to integrate Traditional Ecological Knowledge into conservation frameworks, they also introduce new forms of management that may diverge from locally grounded understandings of agrobiodiversity. By following native potatoes across laboratories, workshops, and homegardens, this presentation highlights agrobiodiversity as an embodied, relational, and multispecies practice, sustained through ongoing negotiations between institutional conservation agendas and campesino ecological knowledge.
11:20
Presentation Format:
Oral (virtual)
Indigenous agricultural practices have been foundational to sustainable agriculture for centuries as models that combine environmental wisdom with cultural tradition. With the threats of climate change, biodiversity loss, and food insecurity, indigenous wisdom offers under-recognized solutions through an ethnobotanical lens crucial in shaping a more sustainable future. My research examines Indigenous agricultural practices of the Lehigh Valley Lenape, highlighting their ongoing relevance in providing sustainable solutions. With mentorship from Lenape Clan Mother of Pennsylvania, Shelley DePaul, I’ve examined ethnobotanical practices of the Lenape and other indigenous groups worldwide. By honoring techniques rooted in Indigenous knowledge systems, such as the Three Sisters, agroforestry, and seed saving, societies can incorporate more sustainable and equitable food systems that benefit human health and increase connection to their food. Based on centuries of ethnobotanical knowledge, Indigenous agriculture practices offer vital, sustainable solutions to climate crisis and the health of humans.
11:40
Presentation Format:
Oral (in-person)
Yuca (cassava, manioc) is a nutritional staple essential to indigenous Amazonian groups. It is highly diverse, with different types having different uses and agricultural advantages. Despite the importance of this diversity to Amazonian cultures, the factors shaping it have received little research attention. Therefore, we investigated them in a study of yuca types grown by a Bora community in the Upper Peruvian Amazon, with an emphasis on patterns of sharing of variation between the community and communities elsewhere. We found evidence that Boran yuca types show signatures of pressures both restricting and enhancing local variation. The names of Boran types overlapped with outside areas, but not completely, with unique local names. Likewise, morphological variation in Boran yuca overlapped with outside areas, but was measurably different. Our observations of trading and local breeding of feral yuca types may explain these patterns.
Presentations
| Abstract | |
|---|---|
| 09:00 |
Presentation Format:
Oral (in-person)
Berries are the most harvested and valued plant food in Arctic and sub-Arctic communities and are cultural keystone species in the North. Despite deep cultural significance and sustained use across generations, the relationships among berries and people in Arctic regions continue to be underexplored in published research. In this paper, we consider the ways in which people relate to berries and promote berrying in ‘cold’ places using a case study from a sub-Arctic community: Dillingham, Alaska. We posit that the environmental elements of cold climates and the ways that climate extremes shape plant stature and growth ultimately shape the ways people steward plants and landscapes. Interviews with 42 berry pickers identified 29 different practices of berry stewardship. We show how stewardship and berry relationships are shaped by the climatic and ecological conditions of a place, and we identify aspects of berry stewardship and relations unique to northern and cold regions. |
| 09:20 |
Presentation Format:
Oral (in-person)
This study examined plant use and cultivation practices of the Mayangna, an economically impoverished indigenous group in northern Nicaragua. Agroforestry systems were subsistence-based and important sources of food, building materials, fuel and medicinal plants, game animals and in some cases sources of income. Homegardens were found to be an important source of medicinal, food and spiritual plants, and varied greatly in their size and diversity of useful species. The species composition, use and management practices of both agroforestry systems and homegardens were also influenced by mestizo and indigenous Miskito practices. Surveys of local mestizo homegardens were also conducted to provide comparisons to Mayangna practices. Urbanization and the impacts of gold mining are strong socioeconomic pressures that have pulled Mayangna away from farming and forest use. Climate change and the disruption of seasonal rainfall patterns further exacerbate the situation in an area that is experiencing rapid deforestation and land invasions. |
| 09:40 |
Presentation Format:
Oral (virtual)
What can cookbooks reveal when viewed as historical sources? In two courses I developed assignments around investigating cookbooks as primary sources. In a lower division history class, "Historical Methods", I designed the class around the sources and methods of food history, including: cookbooks, diaries, ships' logs, oral traditions, and even recipes chiseled onto gravestones. In this class I assign questions about historical cookbooks held in Special Collections at SFU Library. These questions build knowledge of the work and build student confidence to make inferences about overt and implied meanings and what the work says about the historical era. In an upper division class, I crafted an assignment that encourages deeper thematic analysis, allowing students to ponder, for example, what "healthy" is defined as, why "quick and easy" has become a popular recipe ambition, and how authors locate authority. Both assignments develop appreciation for cookbooks as sources of social histories. |
| 10:00 |
Presentation Format:
Oral (in-person)
This study aims to reconstruct Haudenosaunee food systems along the Oneida River, in Onondaga territory, the area known today as central New York. Using paleoecology, archaeological data, historical documents, botanical records, ethnography, and other sources, we compiled data into a hypothetical seasonal round economy around the time of European contact (1600). The Oneida River provides a microcosm of the bounty locally available, while speaking also to the damage wrought by settler terraforming. Onondaga people had access to diverse, abundant, and highly nutritious calorie sources, despite seasonal challenges. When Europeans arrived in the area, they gushed over the flora, fauna, and water before proceeding to dismantle the very ecosystems that kept water clean and life abundant. This story can inspire and direct restoration efforts. It also brings attention to land justice efforts due to the centrality of extensive land base and healthy ecosystems needed to maintain these kinds of foodways. |
| 10:40 |
Presentation Format:
Oral (virtual)
Socioecological networks act as mechanisms for the circulation of knowledge and propagules in traditional communities, playing a central role in coping with environmental adversities in agricultural systems. This study investigates the adaptive responses of the vazanteiros of Quilombo da Lapinha, in Brazil, in the face of climate and socioenvironmental changes. It is based on the hypothesis that centrality in exchange networks, richness of managed species, and pluriactivity favor permanence in the territory. Through participant observation, interviews, and guided tours with 30 vazanteiros, seven vulnerability scenarios were presented, involving territorial conflicts, scarcity of natural and agricultural resources, and changes in water availability. The hypotheses were corroborated. A strong adherence to pluriactivity was identified, with an average management of 25.7 species, predominance of creole seeds, and strategies of rotation and on farm conservation. The majority 80 percent indicated permanence, highlighting hydrodependence, ancestry, and collectivity as foundations of resistance, climate justice, and the fight against environmental racism. |
| 11:00 |
Presentation Format:
Oral (in-person)
This presentation examines how agrobiodiversity conservation is enacted and negotiated in everyday agricultural practices in the Chiloé Archipelago, Chile, a global center of potato diversity. Drawing on ongoing ethnographic fieldwork conducted between January–March 2025 and January–March 2026, I explore how Chilote farmers engage with state-led and international conservation initiatives that promote in situ agrobiodiversity conservation through the circulation of native potato varieties. I focus in particular on recent projects that reintroduce virus-free native potatoes from germplasm banks into homegardens, tracing how these scientifically standardized tubers reshape local practices of cultivation, care, and exchange. While such initiatives seek to integrate Traditional Ecological Knowledge into conservation frameworks, they also introduce new forms of management that may diverge from locally grounded understandings of agrobiodiversity. By following native potatoes across laboratories, workshops, and homegardens, this presentation highlights agrobiodiversity as an embodied, relational, and multispecies practice, sustained through ongoing negotiations between institutional conservation agendas and campesino ecological knowledge. |
| 11:20 |
Presentation Format:
Oral (virtual)
Indigenous agricultural practices have been foundational to sustainable agriculture for centuries as models that combine environmental wisdom with cultural tradition. With the threats of climate change, biodiversity loss, and food insecurity, indigenous wisdom offers under-recognized solutions through an ethnobotanical lens crucial in shaping a more sustainable future. My research examines Indigenous agricultural practices of the Lehigh Valley Lenape, highlighting their ongoing relevance in providing sustainable solutions. With mentorship from Lenape Clan Mother of Pennsylvania, Shelley DePaul, I’ve examined ethnobotanical practices of the Lenape and other indigenous groups worldwide. By honoring techniques rooted in Indigenous knowledge systems, such as the Three Sisters, agroforestry, and seed saving, societies can incorporate more sustainable and equitable food systems that benefit human health and increase connection to their food. Based on centuries of ethnobotanical knowledge, Indigenous agriculture practices offer vital, sustainable solutions to climate crisis and the health of humans. |
| 11:40 |
Presentation Format:
Oral (in-person)
Yuca (cassava, manioc) is a nutritional staple essential to indigenous Amazonian groups. It is highly diverse, with different types having different uses and agricultural advantages. Despite the importance of this diversity to Amazonian cultures, the factors shaping it have received little research attention. Therefore, we investigated them in a study of yuca types grown by a Bora community in the Upper Peruvian Amazon, with an emphasis on patterns of sharing of variation between the community and communities elsewhere. We found evidence that Boran yuca types show signatures of pressures both restricting and enhancing local variation. The names of Boran types overlapped with outside areas, but not completely, with unique local names. Likewise, morphological variation in Boran yuca overlapped with outside areas, but was measurably different. Our observations of trading and local breeding of feral yuca types may explain these patterns. |