Creative Practices of Care

The Subjectivity, Agency, and Affective Labor of Preparing Seeds for Long-term Banking

Bibliographic Data

ID2263458
AuthorsXan Sarah Chacko (0000-0003-4315-781X, corresponding author)
Year2019
Volume41
Issue2
Pages97-106
Publication date2019-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueCulture Agriculture Food and Environment (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2153-9553 • E-ISSN: 2153-9561
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/cuag.12237
OpenAlexW2991579374
LanguageEN
Citations received15
References cited40

Laying aside the question of whether saving seeds in freezers is the most promising long-term solution to prevent the loss of plant biodiversity and secure our access to food in a troubled future climate, this article draws attention to the conditions of possibility that scaffold the seed bank world. Oft relegated to "tech" work that is unworthy of observation, this article focuses on the labor practices of seed curators as they prepare the seeds for their ultimate storage at the largest seed bank of wild plants-the Millennium Seed Bank Partnership in West Sussex, England. Contributing to the growing scholarship on care in technoscientific practice, I investigate how scientists summon their bodies, imaginations, and feelings to clean, screen, and count seeds, all the while producing knowledge that renders the seeds legible in the bank. By following the seeds through the experimental care practices espoused by scientists involved from the moment seeds arrive at the bank until they are ready for storage, I study how seemingly mundane tasks radically influence how "life" is being prepared for the future.[seed banking, gene banking, Millennium Seed Bank Partnership, care practice, laboratory studies, affective labor

Agency (philosophy · Art · Aside · Business · Economic growth · Economics · Feeling · General partnership · Political science · Public relations · Scholarship · Social science · Sociology · Animal and Plant Science Education · Environmental Philosophy and Ethics · Geographies of human-animal interactions · Psychology · Finance