News

Winter 2022 Project Update

29 December 2022

Read our Winter 2022 Newsletter to learn about recent activities of the project and its many researchers. To subscribe to our newsletter, email us at hps-cultivation@lists.cam.ac.uk

Mole Tamal made by Doña Inés (© Daniela Sclavo). An opened tamale sits on a floral-patterned plate next to a cup of coffee. These and several pieces of cutlery are photographed from above, with a colorful tablecloth underneath.

Living Biocultural Archives project led by team member Daniela Sclavo wins commission from Imagining Futures

27 November 2022

In summer 2022, the Imagining Futures network selected the project Living Biocultural Archives: “Collective Archivism” as one of its commissioned projects. This is exciting news for the work of Collection to Cultivation, as this ambitious community archiving initiative is part of the work of Cambridge HPS doctoral student...

Cardboard box used to pack cherry tomatoes produced in Minxiong, Southern Taiwan

The Rise and Fall of Processed Tomato in Taiwan by Leo Chu

26 October 2022

The Rise and Fall of Processed Tomato in Taiwan The sixth instalment in our project blog, where From Collection to Cultivation members share research insights, snippets, and ideas. When mentioning my research on the tomato breeding program of the Asian Vegetable Research and Development Center (AVRDC, today known as the...

European Space Agency Sentinel 2A image of Brazilian farms from space. From ESA: "Here we can see a large, flat plateau blanked with fields benefiting from rich soils and an apparent abundance of water, before falling off into a green, hilly valley (left)

Ryan Nehring and colleagues on "Soy Without Borders"

1 October 2022

The October 2022 issue of leading environmental history journal Global Environment features an article by Collection to Cultivation postdoc Ryan Nehring and his colleagues Cassandio Brito Rocha and Sandro Dutra e Silvo, ' Soy Without Borders: The Transnational Dynamics of Commodity Frontiers In South America (1971–2019...

Summer 2022 Project Update

14 July 2022

Read our Summer 2022 Project Update from our Newsletter, archived here: Summer Newsletter, 2022. To subscribe to our newsletter, email us at hps-cultivation@lists.cam.ac.uk

A man stands in a field gesturing towards a green leafy plant

Notes from the Field: Brazilian PANCs by Ryan Nehring

22 June 2022

Notes from the Field: Brazilian PANCs The fifth instalment in our project blog, where From Collection to Cultivation members share research insights, snippets, and ideas. The image of Brazilian agriculture across the globe is polarising. For some, vast fields of technologically-advanced monoculture are the archetype of...

A crowd of protesters carry banners reading "Farmers, not corporations, feed the world. Fight for just, equitable, healthy and sustainable food systems!"

Sovereignty and the Food Systems Summit by Hitesh Pant

8 April 2022

Sovereignty and the Food Systems Summit by Hitesh Pant The fourth instalment in our project blog, where From Collection to Cultivation members share research insights, snippets, and ideas. On 23 September 2021, the United Nations Food Systems Summit was inaugurated during the UN General Assembly as a significant historical...

A black and white photo of a man standing in a field of corn, holding an ear of corn in his hands

Heritage Seeds and Settler Legacies by Helen Anne Curry

1 March 2022

Heritage Seeds and Settler Legacies by Helen Anne Curry The third instalment in our project blog, where From Collection to Cultivation members share research insights, snippets, and ideas. I first encountered Mandan seeds as I pieced together the history of some corn samples placed in the care of the US Department of...

Hands deveining dried chile peppers and a pile of deep red chiles

Desvenar: Reimagining Fieldwork by Daniela Sclavo

1 February 2022

Desvenar: Reimagining Fieldwork by Daniela Sclavo The second instalment in our project blog, where From Collection to Cultivation members share research insights, snippets, and ideas. Inés instructed me to wash and desvenar the guajillo chiles for the next day’s mole. The literal translation of desvenar is to devein...

An image of two green aphids looking at one another against a black background

Paying Attention to Aphids by João P. R. Joaquim

6 December 2021

Paying Attention to Aphids by João P. R. Joaquim The first instalment in our project blog, where From Collection to Cultivation members share research insights, snippets, and ideas. Most histories where insects have a significant role gravitate towards those critters that people either love or hate. But what about one that...