IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/agrhuv/v30y2013i1p101-114.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Deskilling, agrodiversity, and the seed trade: a view from contemporary British allotments

Author

Listed:
  • Paul Gilbert

Abstract

Over the last half-century, quality control standards have had the perverse effect of restricting the circulation of non-commercially bred vegetable cultivars in Britain. Recent European and British legislation attempts to compensate for this loss of agrodiversity by relaxing genetic purity standards and the cost of seed marketing for designated “Amateur” and “Conservation” varieties. Drawing on fieldwork conducted at a British allotment site, this article cautions against bringing genetically heterogeneous cultivars into the commercial sphere. Such a move may intensify the horticultural “deskilling” of British allotment gardeners, who have come to rely on commercial seed catalogs as sources of germplasm and knowledge. Horticultural deskilling also entails the delegation of seed selection activities to professional breeders and the potential loss of agrodiversity. The activities of dedicated seed savers who save and circulate the seed of genetically heterogeneous “heritage” varieties, in a manner similar to the management of landraces in the global South, may provide a better model for attempts to safeguard vegetable diversity in the global North. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2013

Suggested Citation

  • Paul Gilbert, 2013. "Deskilling, agrodiversity, and the seed trade: a view from contemporary British allotments," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 30(1), pages 101-114, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:agrhuv:v:30:y:2013:i:1:p:101-114
    DOI: 10.1007/s10460-012-9380-z
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s10460-012-9380-z
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10460-012-9380-z?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Humphries, Jane, 1990. "Enclosures, Common Rights, and Women: The Proletarianization of Families in the Late Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 50(1), pages 17-42, March.
    2. JoAnn Jaffe & Michael Gertler, 2006. "Victual Vicissitudes: Consumer Deskilling and the (Gendered) Transformation of Food Systems," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 23(2), pages 143-162, June.
    3. C. Dolan & J. Humphrey, 2000. "Governance and Trade in Fresh Vegetables: The Impact of UK Supermarkets on the African Horticulture Industry," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(2), pages 147-176.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Armelle Mazé & Aida Calabuig Domenech & Isabelle Goldringer, 2021. "Commoning the seeds: alternative models of collective action and open innovation within French peasant seed groups for recreating local knowledge commons," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 38(2), pages 541-559, June.
    2. Cristian Timmermann & Georges Félix, 2015. "Agroecology as a vehicle for contributive justice," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 32(3), pages 523-538, September.
    3. Coomes, Oliver T. & McGuire, Shawn J. & Garine, Eric & Caillon, Sophie & McKey, Doyle & Demeulenaere, Elise & Jarvis, Devra & Aistara, Guntra & Barnaud, Adeline & Clouvel, Pascal & Emperaire, Laure & , 2015. "Farmer seed networks make a limited contribution to agriculture? Four common misconceptions," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 41-50.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sowjanya R. Peddi, 2014. "Multinational Corporations in Indian Food Retail: Why and How Size Matters," Millennial Asia, , vol. 5(1), pages 89-117, April.
    2. Roberta Rabellotti & Alessia Amighini, 2003. "The effect of globalisation on industrial districts in Italy: evidence from the footwear sector," ERSA conference papers ersa03p500, European Regional Science Association.
    3. Gómez, Miguel I. & Ricketts, Katie D., 2013. "Food value chain transformations in developing countries: Selected hypotheses on nutritional implications," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 139-150.
    4. Maertens, Miet & Verhofstadt, Ellen, 2013. "Horticultural exports, female wage employment and primary school enrolment: Theory and evidence from Senegal," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 118-131.
    5. Stephanie BARRIENTOS & Gary GEREFFI & Arianna ROSSI, 2011. "Economic and social upgrading in global production networks: A new paradigm for a changing world," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 150(3-4), pages 319-340, December.
    6. Neven, David & Katjiuongua, Hikuepi & Adjosoediro, Ingrid & Reardon, Thomas & Chuzu, Pia Nwanza & Tembo, Gelson & Ndiyoi, Mukelabai, 2006. "Food Sector Transformation and Standards in Zambia: Smallholder Farmer Participation and Growth in the Dairy Sector," Staff Paper Series 11701, Michigan State University, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics.
    7. Sukhpal Singh, 2013. "Governance and upgrading in export grape global production networks in India," Global Development Institute Working Paper Series ctg-2013-33, GDI, The University of Manchester.
    8. Rich, Karl M. & Ross, R. Brent & Baker, A. Derek & Negassa, Asfaw, 2011. "Quantifying value chain analysis in the context of livestock systems in developing countries," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 214-222, April.
    9. Matanda, Margaret Jekanyika & Freeman, Susan, 2009. "Effect of perceived environmental uncertainty on exporter-importer inter-organisational relationships and export performance improvement," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 89-107, February.
    10. Mamen Cuéllar-Padilla & Ernesto Ganuza-Fernandez, 2018. "We Don’t Want to Be Officially Certified! Reasons and Implications of the Participatory Guarantee Systems," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-15, April.
    11. Belton, Ben & Haque, Mohammad Mahfujul & Little, David C. & Sinh, Le Xuan, 2011. "Certifying catfish in Vietnam and Bangladesh: Who will make the grade and will it matter?," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 289-299, April.
    12. Bianca Polenzani & Chiara Riganelli & Andrea Marchini, 2020. "Sustainability Perception of Local Extra Virgin Olive Oil and Consumers’ Attitude: A New Italian Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-18, January.
    13. Adetoyinbo, Ayobami & Otter, Verena, 2020. "Organizational Structures, Gender Roles and Upgrading Strategies for Smallholders in Developing Countries’ Local Value Chains," GlobalFood Discussion Papers 305193, Georg-August-Universitaet Goettingen, GlobalFood, Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development.
    14. van Tilburg, Aad & Trienekens, Jacques H. & Ruben, Ruerd & van Boekel, Martinus A.J.S., 2007. "Governance for quality management in smallholder-based tropical food chains," 106th Seminar, October 25-27, 2007, Montpellier, France 7932, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    15. Riisgaard, Lone, 2009. "Global Value Chains, Labor Organization and Private Social Standards: Lessons from East African Cut Flower Industries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 37(2), pages 326-340, February.
    16. repec:ipg:wpaper:2014-496 is not listed on IDEAS
    17. Anna Giunta & Domenico Scalera & Francesco Trivieri & Jeffrey B. Nugent & Mariarosaria Agostino, 2011. "Firm Productivity, Organizational Choice and Global Value Chain," Working Papers 2011R09, Orkestra - Basque Institute of Competitiveness.
    18. Alexandrine Lapoutte & Clara Lohier-Fanchini & Séverine Saleilles, 2017. "De l’aide à la justice alimentaire : Étude d’un partenariat entre Biocoop et des épiceries sociales et solidaires," Post-Print halshs-01660289, HAL.
    19. Adu-Gyamfi Poku & Regina Birner & Saurabh Gupta, 2018. "Making Contract Farming Arrangements Work in Africa’s Bioeconomy: Evidence from Cassava Outgrower Schemes in Ghana," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(5), pages 1-21, May.
    20. Y. Mainville, Denise & Reardon, Thomas, 2007. "Supermarket market-channel participation and technology decisions of horticultural producers in Brazil," Revista de Economia e Sociologia Rural (RESR), Sociedade Brasileira de Economia e Sociologia Rural, vol. 45(3), January.
    21. Islam, Md. Saidul, 2008. "From pond to plate: Towards a twin-driven commodity chain in Bangladesh shrimp aquaculture," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 209-223, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:agrhuv:v:30:y:2013:i:1:p:101-114. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.