Carolyn Sachs

Growing Oca, Ulluco, and Mashua in the Andes: Socioeconomic differences in cropping practices

Farmers in Andean communities depend on complex farming systems that combine native and introduced crops, production for subsistence, and production for the market. Home to the well-known potato, the Andean region is also the native place of hundreds of lesser known varieties of tubers such as oca, ulluco, and mashua. Using data from interviews and field observation in the Peruvian community of Picol, we describe the economic and social relevance of these tuber crops in the context of the local farming system. A cross-case comparison of households is used to examine the relationship between socioeconomic status and the allocation of family resources. We also explore how different agricultural practices relate to the biodiversity of indigenous tuber crops.

A Climate for Feminist Intervention: Feminist Science Studies and Climate Change

For many years, climate change discourse was dominated by a technical-scientific framing based on modernist notions of objective knowledge, control, and efficiency. In recent years, a robust alternative discourse of climate justice has emerged, challenging mainstream adaptation and mitigation policies as reinforcing capitalist, colonialist, and patriarchal power structures and further marginalizing already vulnerable peoples and communities. But while the climate justice movement has provided a sorely needed corrective to climate change discourse, it has been hampered by addressing only policy issues without critically examining the scientific knowledge on which climate change discourse is based. Drawing on critiques of science and technology from ecofeminism and feminist science studies, we argue that scientific knowledge is always already structured by social power relations before it ever enters into policy discussions. In place of the (illusory) God-trick of absolute knowledge and control of the global climate system, we use Haraway’s ideas of feminist objectivity, partial perspective, relations between species, and cyborg standpoints to situate and pluralize knowledge about climate change. This intervention opens up discursive space for multiple, partial knowledge about the climate system, all of which can be held accountable to their ethical and political implications. This pluralization of knowledge allows feminists to recognize and support many forms and venues of climate change-related activism, moving beyond the impasses of international and national political negotiations. Thus, far from dismissing climate change, a feminist critique of climate science makes possible a range of interventions that can more effectively promote social justice and ecological health.

Public agricultural researchers: Reactions to organic, low input and sustainable agriculture

This paper offers a preliminary assessment of the reactions of public agricultural researchers to three terms used currently in the debate surrounding reduced input farming systems: organic, alternative, and sustainable agriculture. It is argued that these terms have been appropriated by the land grant system and their critical content removed to make them palatable to more mainstream agricultural researchers. A national sample of agricultural production researchers is explored, and disciplinary differences in attitudes toward the three terms are assessed. We conclude that sustainable and alternative agriculture do appear acceptable to the mainstream of production researchers, consistent with the hypothesis that they have been appropriated by the land grant system. Moreover, reasons why organic agriculture remains unacceptable are suggested.

Growing Public Concern Over Pesticides in Food and Water

Public concern about pesticides in food and water has increased dramatically in the last decade. Food-safety and water-quality issues have received increased attention by consumers and interest groups. The growth of the environmental movement and Green politics have heightened public awareness and influenced policies relating to food and water quality. At the same time that the general public and public-interest groups are more concerned with pesticides in food and water, confidence in science and government regulatory processes has eroded. Thus, a number of public-interest groups are pressing for stricter government regulation of pesticides and development of alternatives to pesticides. But chemical companies, food industries, and farmers are arguing that consumers are overreacting to the dangers of pesticides and suggesting that consumers need more education about how food is grown, why pesticides are applied, and the minimal danger pesticides pose to their health and safety. This paper documents the level of public concern about pesticide use, discusses the public’s confidence in government regulatory activity, explores the relation between science and public policy, and finally raises ethical issues relating to consumer concerns and public policy.

Reconsidering diversity in agriculture and food systems: An ecofeminist approach

The concept of diversity is at the center of environmental and social movements. This paper discusses four aspects of diversity related to agriculture: biological, social, cultural, and product and suggests that viewing diversity solely as difference skirts the issues of redistribution of power and shifting social relations. Ecofeminist conceptions of diversity are discussed with a focus on seeds, forests, and sustainable agriculture. Womens activities at the grassroots level provides new insights and pathways to diversity that combine social, agricultural, and biological issues.

Women's work and food: a comparative perspective

Abstract The paper compares womens work in food production, processing, marketing and preparation in developed and developing countries. The provision of adequate food for the family is central to the lives of many women in developing countries. In advanced industrial societies the location, timing, rewards and nature of womens work with food has changed over time. The impact of the shift in food-related activities from household to market-place is explored using examples from the United States of America and selected developing countries