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Review of Enduring Seeds: The Native American Agriculture and Wild Plant Conservation by Garry Paul Nabhan

Summary from the author’s viewpoint

Similar to the people Mesoamerica, the Amazon, as well as the Andean region, the Indian farmers in North America have consistently over thousands of years planted beans, maize, squash, and squash, among other crops (Nabhan x). The most noticeable characteristic of their contemporary farming system is a rich biodiversity. The farming systems in these communities emerged over many centuries of biological and cultural evolution; it is an evidence of indigenous farmers interacting with nature without access to scientific knowledge, external inputs, or capital. The farmers from these regions have often relied on experimental knowledge, resources that are locally available, self-reliance to come up with coming up with farming systems that have withstood the change in climate (Nabhan xi).

Several agrosystems in the Mesoamerican communities constitute key repositories. The agro-systems, from an agro-ecological viewpoint, appears as the integration of farm units and semi-natural or natural ecosystem in which crop production, as well as plant gathering, are actively done. Plant resources directly rely on the management by various human groups. Therefore, the have continued to evolve with the influence of different farming practices that are shaped by specific cultures.

Agronomists, consultants, and other scientists have tried to understand the intricacies of local and traditional farming methods. Unfortunately, they often instead of listening to the rationale of traditional farmers, the scientist impose technologies and conditions that have destroyed the integrity of indigenous farming. The greatest challenge to comprehending how native farmers maintain, manage, and preserve the environment is acknowledging the complexity of their farming systems. Therefore, to effectively study these farming systems, it would be impossible to ignore in the study of agricultural biodiversity the culture that makes the traditional farming system exist. As traditional agriculture gradually disappears due to changes in economic, political, and social dynamics; the preservation of indigenous agricultural systems has to be done simultaneously with the maintenance of the culture of the native farmers. There is much good in the diversity of the native indigenous farming system, and diversity has to endure so as to benefit the people, particularly the poor all over the globe. Traditional agriculture helps preserve biodiversity, ensure and insure food security, preserve water resources and soil, and has over the years shown its resilience to climate change and natural disaster over which peasant and native farmers do not have control.

Evaluation

The main theme of Garry Paul Nabhan’s Enduring Seeds: The Native American Agriculture and Wild Plant Conservation revolves around the interplay between cultural and biological diversity. Nabhan directs his focus to indigenous cultural traditions that conserve and maintain the genetic diversity natural environment and preserved as seeds. For instance, as Nathan explains, it is possible to meet village that plant ten to eighteen types of locally- adapted beans most of which were passed from one generation to the next in a century or less (xxiv). The author is angered by the fact that such beans have do not often reach the supermarkets across North America. A large quantity of beach reaching the markets are usually on, or at most three varieties from small highly uniform micro-regions (Nabhan, xxv). The book is highly poetic and combines elements of biography, natural history, narratives, and ethnobotany. The text has several poetic lines for instance “Gone too are most of the 260 other kinds of beans found in the thousands of small farms which once dotted New York” (Nabhan xxvi). Nabhan uses narrative to explain the diversity of vegetation in the US-Mexico border. He says “ I one played hopscotch, jumping from one world or plants to another...I started off on the edge of a black lava flow and found a set of plants, including squat cacti and resinous shrubs…With a skip and a jump, I dropped down into dunes…where plants endemic to shift caught my eye (11).” The plants across the border into Mexico are often made up of desert lilies and several other bulbs that have adapted to the loose soil.

Throughout the book, the author’s close attention is on the cultural traditions and norms that preserve, use, and develop plant diversity, particularly indigenous crop ecotypes tuned to the rain, temperature, and soil. However, much of the text is equally describes the cultural importance of biodiversity as it discusses the seeds themselves. Nabhan discusses an old and ongoing dialogue between nature and culture while providing useful lessons for modern agricultural systems. By so doing, Nabhan demystifies the interwoven idea of agriculture, culture, nature and global diversity. For example, Celgusa plants in Guatemala would have translated into logging of eighteen million acres of land being logged every year (Nabhan 20). If

Baja Verapaz and Atla are deforested, cases of soil erosion, storm runoff, as well as water pollution would increase. Celgusa plant would have probably caused pollution to Rio Montagua and take up approximately 5 percent of the water in that region (Nabhan 20). The highlands of Rio Montagua provide water for Guatemala’s main producing areas in the lowlands. The reduction in water supply would have adverse effects on banana growers downstream. Guatemala’s example is just one among many the Nabhan use to explain how agriculture and biodiversity are inseparable and assessment has to be done on either side before affecting any of them.

Nabhan, in his emphasis on the relationship between traditional farming and biodiversity, implies wild plants have particular qualities that are an insect, drought, salt, and disease resistant. Therefore, there is need to draw these qualities for the wild plant so as to achieve crops that can withstand all climatic adversities. However, this cannot happen with the continued destruction of wild plants and natural forests.

The book is credible in that it was published by The University of Arizona Press which is a well know and reputable institution. The book details the efforts the native farmers took in seed conservation and how they waited for some time before re-introducing old seeds into the ecosystem with no scientific knowledge. This inspires readers interested in ecology, particularly botanists, farmers, and even gardeners.

In conclusion, the recent reduction of several species is particularly due to domestication and hybridization in the new farm system, and that is why the traditional farming methods need to be incorporated in the modern farm systems. Nabhan’s book Enduring Seeds: The Native American Agriculture and Wild Plant Conservation may not be a sensation in the market, but it is worth reading to learn and understand how better we withstand the effects of climate change while pursuing food security. The book would likely be suited for academic as well as large libraries.

Works Cited

Nabhan, Gary Paul. Enduring Seeds Native American Agriculture and Wild Plant Conservation. 1st ed., New York: NY, North Point Press, 1989.