We all Live from the Land: Seeds of recognition, recognition of seeds

In a time when more people live in cities than the countryside, it is challenging to think through the implications that we all live from the land, to take in deeply and practically what it means that humans are part of nature. How do city dwellers come to recognize changing nature, including human nature, at a time of rebalancing of atmospheric gases supporting life as we still know it, and of cascading deaths of species, some before they have been identified?

Drawing on the history of ideas about nature, especially Humboldt and Darwin from the 19th century, and Latour’s revisioning of how governing human society might adequately respond to the Gaia hypothesis, Dr. Friedmann will focus on seed governance at the interface of society, culture, and ecology. Seeds of recognition lie in new ways of understanding humans as a species at once like other species—in that humans change ecosystems to get food—but also unique in its capacity to reflect and change its practices. Foundational area selection, saving, changing, and planting seeds. Recognition of seeds is crucial to changes in governing ourselves as part of nature.

Harriet Friedman is an International Visiting Research Scholar from the University of Toronto.

Registration is not required.

This event is co-sponsored by the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies and the Centre for Sustainable Food Systems at UBC Farm.

Presenters

Visiting Scholar

Harriet Friedmann

May 3, 2021

Learn More about the content: Harriet Friedmann.