Guntra A Aistara
Biographic Data
| ID | 144747 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Guntra A Aistara |
| GIVEN NAMES | Guntra A |
| FAMILY NAME | Aistara |
| SIGNATURE | AISTARA G A |
| AFFILIATIONS | Schlumberger (Ireland) |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-0766-5964 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 14 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 76 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 13 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2009 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2020 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
The Ecolaboratory
Despite its tiny size and seeming marginality to world affairs, the Central American republic of Costa Rica has long been considered an important site for experimentation in cutting-edge environmental policy. From protected area management to ecotourism to payment for environmental services (PES) and beyond, for the past half-century the country has successfully positioned itself at the forefront of novel trends in environmental governance and su…
Ecolaboratory
Organic Sovereignties
This first sustained ethnographic study of organic agriculture outside the United States traces its meanings, practices, and politics in two nations typically considered worlds apart: Latvia and Costa Rica. Situated on the frontiers of the European Union and the United States, these geopolitically and economically in-between places illustrate ways that international treaties have created contradictory pressures for organic farmers. Organic farmer…
Good, Clean, Fair … and Illegal
If the Soviet Union perpetuated an economy of scarcity, the European Union maintains an economy of purity: in Soviet Latvia a lack of raw materials restricted production, while in the EU, hygiene regulations restrict processing and sale of homemade foods. In both periods, producers and consumers have cultivated informal social networks that challenge relations to structures of power, equating illegally obtained food products with an ethical stanc…
Farmer seed networks make a limited contribution to agriculture? Four common misconceptions
Practices and Politics of Rural Living in Latvia
Project Nr.2009/0222/1DP/1.1.1.2.0/09/APIA/VIAA/087.Additional informationNotes on contributorsDace DzenovskaDace Dzenovska holds a PhD and an MA in Social Cultural Anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley, and an MA in Social Theory from New York University. She is currently a Senior Researcher/Marie Curie Fellow at the Centre on Migration, Policy and Society, University of Oxford. Her research interests pertain to the politics o…
Latvia’s Tomato Rebellion
A previous version of this paper was presented at the CEU ActJust Earth Day forum "Occupy Earth" in April 2012.Additional informationNotes on contributorsGuntra A. AistaraGuntra A. Aistara received her PhD from the School of Natural Resources and Environment from the University of Michigan. Her research is in environmental anthropology on the themes of organic agriculture movements, agrobiodiversity and seed sovereignty, and the political ecology…
Actually existing tomatoes
In March 2012, a small farm in Latvia with a collection of over 200 tomato varieties was charged with the illegal sale of seeds not included in the European Union's Common Catalogue. The farm's collection includes traditional Latvian varieties that have never been officially registered, Western varieties imported illegally during the Soviet years, and Russian varieties that came into use during the Soviet years and are now defended by Latvian gar…
Seed exchange networks for agrobiodiversity conservation. A review
Environmental Anthropology Engaging Ecotopia
Food sovereignty
Food sovereignty: reconnecting food, nature, and community, edited by Hannah Wittman, Annette Aurelie Desmarais and Nettie Wiebe, Halifax and Winnipeg, Fernwood Publishing, 2010, xii + 224 pp., CAD
Privately public seeds
Costa Rica's entry into the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) was hotly contested and the subject of a national referendum. For activists opposing the treaty, questions of 'privatizing seeds' through imposing intellectual property rights were among the main concerns raised by the treaty, as one requirement of CAFTA was signing the international Convention on Plant Variety Protection known as UPOV. The threat to farmers' seeds in Costa…
Seeds of kin, kin of seeds
This article employs multi-sited ethnography as a tool to explore the relationships among farmer seed exchange practices, intellectual property rights legislation, and biodiversity. Specifically, it investigates these issues in the historically, ecologically and culturally diverse contexts of the Costa Rican and Latvian organic agriculture movements, as these small countries negotiate their places in the economic trading blocs of the Central Amer…
Maps from Space
Implementation of a new system of geographical information system (GIS) maps based on aerial photos to administer EU agri‐environmental support payments for organic farmers in Latvia in 2005 erupted into disputes over farm boundaries, cultural landscapes, good agricultural practices and regional power dynamics. Farmers whose land area had been changed along with the change in technology were deemed to be in breach of their support payment agreeme…
Farmer seed networks make a limited contribution to agriculture? Four common misconceptions
Seeds of kin, kin of seeds
This article employs multi-sited ethnography as a tool to explore the relationships among farmer seed exchange practices, intellectual property rights legislation, and biodiversity. Specifically, it investigates these issues in the historically, ecologically and culturally diverse contexts of the Costa Rican and Latvian organic agriculture movements, as these small countries negotiate their places in the economic trading blocs of the Central Amer…
Maps from Space
Implementation of a new system of geographical information system (GIS) maps based on aerial photos to administer EU agri‐environmental support payments for organic farmers in Latvia in 2005 erupted into disputes over farm boundaries, cultural landscapes, good agricultural practices and regional power dynamics. Farmers whose land area had been changed along with the change in technology were deemed to be in breach of their support payment agreeme…
Food sovereignty
Food sovereignty: reconnecting food, nature, and community, edited by Hannah Wittman, Annette Aurelie Desmarais and Nettie Wiebe, Halifax and Winnipeg, Fernwood Publishing, 2010, xii + 224 pp., CAD
Latvia’s Tomato Rebellion
A previous version of this paper was presented at the CEU ActJust Earth Day forum "Occupy Earth" in April 2012.Additional informationNotes on contributorsGuntra A. AistaraGuntra A. Aistara received her PhD from the School of Natural Resources and Environment from the University of Michigan. Her research is in environmental anthropology on the themes of organic agriculture movements, agrobiodiversity and seed sovereignty, and the political ecology…
Practices and Politics of Rural Living in Latvia
Project Nr.2009/0222/1DP/1.1.1.2.0/09/APIA/VIAA/087.Additional informationNotes on contributorsDace DzenovskaDace Dzenovska holds a PhD and an MA in Social Cultural Anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley, and an MA in Social Theory from New York University. She is currently a Senior Researcher/Marie Curie Fellow at the Centre on Migration, Policy and Society, University of Oxford. Her research interests pertain to the politics o…
Privately public seeds
Costa Rica's entry into the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) was hotly contested and the subject of a national referendum. For activists opposing the treaty, questions of 'privatizing seeds' through imposing intellectual property rights were among the main concerns raised by the treaty, as one requirement of CAFTA was signing the international Convention on Plant Variety Protection known as UPOV. The threat to farmers' seeds in Costa…
Maps from Space
Implementation of a new system of geographical information system (GIS) maps based on aerial photos to administer EU agri‐environmental support payments for organic farmers in Latvia in 2005 erupted into disputes over farm boundaries, cultural landscapes, good agricultural practices and regional power dynamics. Farmers whose land area had been changed along with the change in technology were deemed to be in breach of their support payment agreeme…
Seeds of kin, kin of seeds
This article employs multi-sited ethnography as a tool to explore the relationships among farmer seed exchange practices, intellectual property rights legislation, and biodiversity. Specifically, it investigates these issues in the historically, ecologically and culturally diverse contexts of the Costa Rican and Latvian organic agriculture movements, as these small countries negotiate their places in the economic trading blocs of the Central Amer…
Privately public seeds
Costa Rica's entry into the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) was hotly contested and the subject of a national referendum. For activists opposing the treaty, questions of 'privatizing seeds' through imposing intellectual property rights were among the main concerns raised by the treaty, as one requirement of CAFTA was signing the international Convention on Plant Variety Protection known as UPOV. The threat to farmers' seeds in Costa…
Seed exchange networks for agrobiodiversity conservation. A review
Environmental Anthropology Engaging Ecotopia
Food sovereignty
Food sovereignty: reconnecting food, nature, and community, edited by Hannah Wittman, Annette Aurelie Desmarais and Nettie Wiebe, Halifax and Winnipeg, Fernwood Publishing, 2010, xii + 224 pp., CAD
Practices and Politics of Rural Living in Latvia
Project Nr.2009/0222/1DP/1.1.1.2.0/09/APIA/VIAA/087.Additional informationNotes on contributorsDace DzenovskaDace Dzenovska holds a PhD and an MA in Social Cultural Anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley, and an MA in Social Theory from New York University. She is currently a Senior Researcher/Marie Curie Fellow at the Centre on Migration, Policy and Society, University of Oxford. Her research interests pertain to the politics o…
Latvia’s Tomato Rebellion
A previous version of this paper was presented at the CEU ActJust Earth Day forum "Occupy Earth" in April 2012.Additional informationNotes on contributorsGuntra A. AistaraGuntra A. Aistara received her PhD from the School of Natural Resources and Environment from the University of Michigan. Her research is in environmental anthropology on the themes of organic agriculture movements, agrobiodiversity and seed sovereignty, and the political ecology…
Actually existing tomatoes
In March 2012, a small farm in Latvia with a collection of over 200 tomato varieties was charged with the illegal sale of seeds not included in the European Union's Common Catalogue. The farm's collection includes traditional Latvian varieties that have never been officially registered, Western varieties imported illegally during the Soviet years, and Russian varieties that came into use during the Soviet years and are now defended by Latvian gar…
Good, Clean, Fair … and Illegal
If the Soviet Union perpetuated an economy of scarcity, the European Union maintains an economy of purity: in Soviet Latvia a lack of raw materials restricted production, while in the EU, hygiene regulations restrict processing and sale of homemade foods. In both periods, producers and consumers have cultivated informal social networks that challenge relations to structures of power, equating illegally obtained food products with an ethical stanc…
Farmer seed networks make a limited contribution to agriculture? Four common misconceptions
Organic Sovereignties
This first sustained ethnographic study of organic agriculture outside the United States traces its meanings, practices, and politics in two nations typically considered worlds apart: Latvia and Costa Rica. Situated on the frontiers of the European Union and the United States, these geopolitically and economically in-between places illustrate ways that international treaties have created contradictory pressures for organic farmers. Organic farmer…
The Ecolaboratory
Despite its tiny size and seeming marginality to world affairs, the Central American republic of Costa Rica has long been considered an important site for experimentation in cutting-edge environmental policy. From protected area management to ecotourism to payment for environmental services (PES) and beyond, for the past half-century the country has successfully positioned itself at the forefront of novel trends in environmental governance and su…
Ecolaboratory
Political science (9 works) · Agriculture, Land Use, Rural Development (8 works) · Law (8 works) · Agriculture (7 works) · Geography (7 works) · Politics (6 works) · Sociology (6 works) · Economics (5 works) · Law (5 works) · Archaeology (4 works)