Resources

Our team's recent project-related research publications:

Collections

• Helen Anne Curry and Timothy W. Lorek, coeditors, Agricultural Science as International Development: Historical Perspectives on the CGIAR Era (Cambridge University Press, 2024). *W
• Helen Anne Curry, ed., 'The Collection and Conservation of Plant Genetic Resources, Past and Present', Special Issue of Culture, Agriculture, Food and Environment, 41, no. 2 (2019). *W

2024

• Erinn E. Campbell, '"A Coquettish, Hitchhiking Bug": The Rise and Fall of Pestina, Symbol of Invasive Pests and Agricultural Quarantine', Environmental History 29, no. 3 (July 2024): 579–575. *W
• Helen Anne Curry, 'Stalking Wild Maize: Taxonomy, Plant Exploration, and the Search for Corn’s Origins in South America', Journal of Interdisciplinary History 54, no. 3 (Winter 2024): 323–349. *W
• Tad Brown, 'Africa and the Cattle Without History', Global Environment, Early View (2024) *W
  Early View Available doi:10.3828/whp.ge.63834608440709
• Daniela Sclavo, Lucía Pérez Volkow, and Emilio Hernández Martínez, 'El chile tabiche: memoria, reencuentro y acción comunitaria en Santo Domingo Tomaltepec, Oaxaca, México', Naturaleza y Sociedad. Desafíos Medioambientales 8 (2024): 79–103.
• Leo Chu, '"A Bloodless Social Revolution": Land Reform and Multiple Cropping in Cold War Taiwan, 1950–1979', Plants, People, Planet, Early View (2024). *W

2023

• Tad Brown, 'From Mysore to Cambridge and Back: The Education of a Groundnut Breeder', Plants, People, Planet, Early View (2023). *W
• Daniela Sclavo, 'Flavour, Culture and Food Security: The Spicy Entanglements of Chile Pepper Conservation in 21st Century Mexico', Plants, People, Planet, Early View (2023). *W
• Tad Brown, 'In the Patented Bag: Peanuts, Packaging, and Intellectual Property in the United States, 1906–1932', Enterprise & Society, Early View (2023). *W
• Ryan Nehring, 'Farming Cattle in the Tropics: Transnational Science and Industrializing Pastures in Brazil', Plants, People, Planet, Early View (2023). *W
• Helen Anne Curry, 'The Cornbelt's Last Open Pollinated Corn: Agricultural Extension and the Origins of the Hybrid Corn Seed Industry', Plants, People, Planet, Early View (2023). *W
• Daniela Sclavo, 'Framing the Traditional: Counterrevolution and Gender in Mexican Ethnobotanical Research Through the 1970s and 1980s', Journal of Ethnobotany, Online First (2023).
• Helen Anne Curry, 'Diversifying Description: Sweet Potato Science and International Agricultural Research after the Green Revolution', Agricultural History 97, no. 3 (2023): 414–447. *W
• Leo Chu, 'With and against the Grain: The Asian Vegetable Research and Development Center and Modest Narratives of Green Revolution in Taiwan, 1963–2002', Agricultural History 97, no. 3 (2023): 448–477.
• Tad Brown, 'Cropping Synonymy: Varietal Standardization in the United States, 1900–1970', History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 45, no. 3 (2023): 33. *W
• Helen Anne Curry, 'Breeding Confusion: Hybrid Seeds and Histories of Agriculture', Journal of Peasant Studies 50, no. 3 (2023): 1037–1055. *W
• Helen Anne Curry, 'Data, Duplication, and Decentralisation: Gene Bank Management in the 1980s and 1990s', 163–182 in Sabina Leonelli and Hugh Williamson, eds., Towards Responsible Plant Data Linkage: Data Challenges for Agricultural Research and Development (Cham: Springer). *W

2022

• Helen Anne Curry, Endangered Maize: Industrial Agriculture and the Crisis of Extinction (Oakland: University of California Press, 2022). 
• Helen Anne Curry, 'The History of Seed Banks and the Hazards of Backup', Social Studies of Science 52, no. 5 (October 2022): 664–688. *W
• Cassiano Rocha, Ryan Nehring, and Sandro Dutra e Silva, 'Soy Without Borders: The Transnational Dynamics of Commodity Frontiers In South America (1971–2019)', Global Environment 15, no. 3 (October 2022): 423-455. *W
• Helen Anne Curry, 'Hybrid Seeds in History and Historiography', Isis 113, no. 3 (September 2022): 610–617. [Open Access Version] *W
• Sarah Garland and Helen Anne Curry, 'Turning Promise into Practice: Crop Biotechnology for Increasing Genetic Diversity and Climate Resilience', PLoS Biology 20, no. 7 (July 2022): e3001716. *W
• Ryan Nehring, 'Digitising Biopiracy? The Global Governance of Plant Genetic Resources in the Age of Digital Sequencing Information',Third World Quarterly (June 2022). *W
• Ryan Nehring, 'The Brazilian Green Revolution', Political Geography 95 (May 2022). *W
• Ryan Nehring with co-authors, 'Mycorrhizal Fungi Arbuscular in Forage Grasses Cultivated in Cerrado Soil', Scientific Reports (Nature) 12 (May 2022). *W

2021

• Helen Anne Curry, 'Taxonomy, Race Science, and Mexican Maize', Isis 112, no. 1 (2021). 
• Andrew Ofstehage and Ryan Nehring, 'No-till agriculture and the deception of sustainability in Brazil', International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability (2021).

2020 and earlier

• Helen Anne Curry, 'Why save a seed?' Isis 110, no. 2 (2019). 
• Helen Anne Curry, 'Gene Banks, Seed Libraries, and Vegetable Sanctuaries: The Cultivation and Conservation of Heritage Vegetables in Britain, 1970–1985', Culture, Agriculture, Food, and Environment 41, no. 2 (2019): 87–96. *W
• Helen Anne Curry, 'From Bean Collection to Seed Bank: Transformations in Heirloom Vegetable Conservation, 1970–1985', BJHS Themes 4 (2019): 149–167. *W
• Ryan Nehring, 'Yield of Dreams: Marching West and the Politics of Scientific knowledge in the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa)', Geoforum 77 (2016): 206–217.

*W indicates Wellcome-funded research

Media and outreach:

• Daniela Sclavo, 'Pluralizando el canon: la agroecología y la etnobotánica en México desde una perspectiva de género', La Jornada del Campo, December 2023.
• Helen Anne Curry, 'La diversidad de cultivos: repensar la narrativa de la extinción', La Jornada del Campo, December 2023.
• Helen Anne Curry, webinar on the history of plant science databases for the European Molecular Biology Laboratory, May 2023.
• Hitesh Pant, 'The Profits and Perils of Precision Breeding for Agriculture', Cambridge Journal of Science Policy, May 2023.
• Tad Brown (with co-author Levi van Sant), 'Appreciating Poor Soils', Short Rows, January 2023.
• Helen Anne Curry, interview with the New Books Network, January 2023.
• Helen Anne Curry, public lecture on the history of seed banks for the Cambridge Philosophical Society, October 2022.
• Helen Anne Curry, featured author, Real Foods Media Book Club, June 2022.
• Daniela Sclavo, 'Planting Empowerment and Flavor in Oaxaca,' Whetstone Magazine, 25 May 2022.
• Helen Anne Curry, 'The Race to Protect the Future of Food,' The Conversation, 25 January 2022.
• Helen Anne Curry, 'Going Beyond Seed Banks,' The Scientist, 17 January 2022.
• Helen Anne Curry speaks to Field Lab Earth podcast about the history of seed banks, 21 March 2021.
• Helen Anne Curry speaks to Mind Over Chatter podcast about feeding the world, 22 December 2020.