The long-awaited special issue of Plants, People, Planet on "The History of Crop Science and the Future of Food" was released in September, featuring fourteen articles including five by Collection to Cultivation researchers. The introductory editorial by project PI Helen Anne Curry and (past) postdoc Ryan Nehring highlights the critical importance of historical knowledge to the development of more just and sustainable research infrastructures and food systems.
"As our contributors show, imperial impositions, political ambitions, and disciplinary hierarchies have shaped who counts as a crop scientist, what they do and know, and the long-term consequences of their research," write Curry and Nehring. "These factors continue to be relevant, and it is our responsibility as researchers to pay attention to the interplay of research with power and politics, especially when it comes to shaping the plants that provide sustenance for the world." For more, see the full Open Access special issue, which features studies on crops ranging from wheat to forage grass to chile pepper and diverse geopolitics contexts.