:subsistence matters:
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Featured

introduction to :subsistence matters:

This site collects materials and findings from my on-going research on the foundation of human existence: food, care, land; specifically for the purposes of enriching the human habitat and the complex web of life which sustains our livelihoods. My name is Nina Isabella Moeller and I’m Associate Professor of Political Ecology and People’s Knowledge at Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience. From the field, the kitchen and philosophy, anthropology, geography, politics, sociology, agroecology, law, permaculture, animism and magic. … …

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media appearance

Systemic Problems Require Systemic Solutions

Emily Payne from ‘foodtank – The Think Tank For Food’, reported from a meeting I was invited to, which was organised by Global Alliance for the Future of Food. Her piece is titled Systemic Problems Require Systemic Solutions: At a recent European regional dialogue, policymakers, researchers, farmers, civil society organization leaders, and others gathered to discuss “The Politics of Knowledge,” a new compendium from the Global Alliance for the Future of Food, and agroecology’s role in helping to solve … …

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Redesigning Women

Throughout my life I have taken great inspiration from singer-songwriters such as Gillian Welch, Lucinda Williams and of course Dolly Parton, even if I might have rather diverging opinions on some issues with the latter. Recently I have been listening to ‘Redesigning Women’ by The Highwomen, which is a group consisting of Brandi Carlile, Natalie Hemby, Maren Morris, and Amanda Shires. The rest of their eponymous album, notably the title track also called Highwomen, which brings tears to … …

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publication

Governing Seed for Food Production

Since 2011 I have been working on various aspects of the The International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, which is an international treaty with its Secretariat at the FAO in Rome. Managing and coordinating research projects, analysing financial flow data and funding strategies, and conducting interviews with stakeholders and other parties relevant to the treaty and its Benefit-sharing Fund – in addition to the rest of my work on international regulatory regimes and access … …

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publication

Making Money Move for Agroecology

Here’s a short animation that sends a simple, but important message: Stop funding destructive, petrochemical factory farming and start Making Money Move for Agroecology: The animation is one of the outputs of an on-going collaboration between CIDSE and CAWR’s AgroecologyNow! group. It is widely recognised that a radical transformation of food and agriculture systems is urgently needed in order to address converging social, economic, health and ecological crises. The potential of agroecology to transform food systems and render … …

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publication

Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Anthropology: Agroecology

Together with Michel Pimbert, Jasber Singh and Colin Anderson we’ve had the pleasure and privilege of co-authoring an entry for the ‘Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Anthropology’ on ‘Agroecology’. It is currently freely available, but unfortunately it will move behind a paywall on September 29, 2021″. So get it now for your archives! If you want to discuss this entry, do not hesitate to get in touch and if you wonder what this encyclopedia is, then their modest claim … …

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media appearance

Vertical Birth w/ AMUPAKIN in Ecuador

It was a pleasure contributing to Stance’s recent podcast on vertical birth w/ AMUPAKIN in Ecuador. It is in Ep. 44: Musician Genesis Owusu; Pandemic Birthing w/ Maiysha Campbell Kramer & Milli Hill; Pregnant: Visible and Invisible Disabilities; Vertical Birth w/ AMUPAKIN in Ecuador. Here in the words of Stance: “…We speak with Ofelia, Olga and Maria, Kichwa midwives from the Association of Kichwa Midwives of Upper Napo (AMUPAKIN) about Ecuadorian indigenous birthing practices including vertical birthing which … …

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funding options

Revival of indigenous agroforestry

Applications are now closed for this PhD studentship on the revival of indigenous agroforestry systems. We were overwhelmed by the interest in this project, as well as the quality of the applications we received. We could have recruited several very good candidates for the project with relevant competences, experiences and networks in the Upper Napo region. For that reason we are currently exploring further funding options, including crowdfunding. If you are interested in joining this effort, do not … …

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book review

Plants that speak and institutions that don’t listen

A few years ago I wrote a chapter for a book edited by Michel Pimbert with the title ‘Food Sovereignty, Agroecology and Biocultural Diversity: Constructing and Contesting Knowledge‘. The chapter is about ‘Plants that speak and institutions that don’t listen’ and features ‘notes on the protection of traditional knowledge’ and it is based on field work I did for my PhD in the Ecuadorian Amazon. It was recently brought to my attention that Colin Tudge has reviewed the … …

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report / viewpoint

Funding agroecology: huge potential remains untapped

The need for radical transformation of food and agriculture systems has been thoroughly documented, widely accepted and embraced rhetorically by organisations at all scales, but its potential remains untapped: the political will to actually funding agroecology is missing. In March 2018, together with Michel Pimbert, I wrote: “…Our recently published research shows that very little overseas aid is directed at agroecological research and development. Since January 1 2010, no funds at all have been directed at or been … …

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talk / video

Forest Gardens and Ancestral Health in the Urbanising Ecuadorian Amazon

I have given a variation of talks on the same central lessons that I have learned while working with indigenous peoples in the Amazon, particularly the Amazon as a horticultural artefact and, in this talk, the problems that urbanization entails for the practice and livelihoods of shamans. Here is a video of a version delivered at the 2019 World Ayahuasca Conference in Girona, where I was a little nervous in the vast theatre, its strong spot lights and … …

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Yachaks, knowledge, ayahuasca and protection

This is a brief extract from my thesis (more on that here), featuring an interview with a Kichwa shaman about yachaks, knowledge, ayahuasca and protection. 5.3.1 Wizards and Fighter Jets. “How do you protect your knowledge?” I asked a middle-aged yachak [‘one who knows’, plural yachakuna], a traditional Kichwa healer, wizard and community adviser, as we were preparing a large amount of ayahuasca brew, the hallucinogenic drink ‘that makes you see’, and ultimately, ‘know and heal’. “You need … …

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‘Living in Napo’: a brief political economy of extraction and colonisation in the Ecuadorian Amazon

This is a presentation of Chapter 3, ‘Living in Napo’, of my PhD thesis (The Protection of Traditional Knowledge in the Ecuadorian Amazon: A Critical Ethnography of Capital Expansion, 2010), which is a brief political economy of extraction and colonisation in the Ecuadorian Amazon. It contextualises my fieldwork (2005-2008) in the Napo region, as well as the key focus of my research in that period, a participatory bioprospecting project. “Antes los gringos decían que somos estúpidos, ahora quieren … …

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Indigenous Amazonian responses to COVID-19

I recently submitted an application for a small amount of money for a project with a potentially large impact. Having worked with Kichwa communities, federations and individual yachaks (shamans) in the Upper Napo since 2005 and partcipated in their struggles for protection, restoration and revalorisation of traditional knowledge and medicinal practices, the current resurgence of interest in the ways of old and the healing powers of the forest is exciting. Even if it is generated by the pandemic. … …

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talk

Awakkuna: Knitting for conservation in the Ecuadorian Amazon

Title: Awakkuna: Knitting for conservation in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Abstract: Crafting certain essentials of everyday and celebratory life (baskets, clay pots, carrying and fishing nets, tools, jewellery and ornamentation) has been—and in certain cases still is—a fundamental aspect of Napo Runa (Amazonian Kichwa of the Upper Napo River, Ecuador) subsistence and conviviality. Making ‘artesanias’ for sale has, for many families, become a key aspect in a bundle of livelihood strategies which confirms cultural identity and conveys a sense … …

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talk

‘More-than-sustainable’ cultural forests of Amazonian pasts

Title: ‘More-than-sustainable’ cultural forests of Amazonian pasts: The other side of the anthropocene and the future human habitat. Abstract: The anthropocene, despite contested meanings and definitions, tends to imply a ‘negative impact human social metabolism’. On the basis of a nascent action research project on ancestral chakras (traditional forest garden systems) in the Ecuadorian Amazon with Napo Runa (lowland Kichwa) communities, I explore ‘the other side of the anthropocene’ in the praxis of ‘cultural forests’ (Balée 2013). Archaeologists … …

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media appearance

Vulnerable Amazonian communities?

On May 7, 2020, I appeared briefly on ABC’s RN Drive with Patricia Karvelas. She asked me about the situation for indigenous people in the Amazon with regards to the pandemic. It is difficult to talk about ‘vulnerable Amazonian communities’. Firstly, the Amazon is huge and diverse. There are people living in isolation from civilisation deep in the forest; there are indigenous people living in cities; and everything in between. Secondly, like anywhere else in the world, some … …

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talk

Biosocialism for the Amazon?

Title: Biosocialism for the Amazon? Ikiam, the state and subsistence struggles in postneoliberal Ecuador Abstract: As the largest connected system of rainforests on Earth, the role of the Amazon in stabilising global ecological processes and mitigating climate chaos is widely seen as critical and its protection has taken on new urgency. Yielding crucial commodities, the Amazon region also represents, however, important state income. Governing the region efficiently and effectively is thus paramount to maintaining the income flow, while … …

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Kichwa community leader on pandemic

This is a low resolution video, recorded and sent by phone from the Upper Napo region of the Ecuadorian Amazon. It is by Patricio Andi – who is a Kichwa community leader – on the pandemic. His comments reflect those of all my Napo Runa friends, teachers, connections and informants, and there is currently a revival of traditional medicine and food in response to the pandemic. This a natural response, which can also be found in other regions … …

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Kichwa midwife on corona pandemic

Below you find four low resolution videos – recorded on and sent by phone – in which Ofelia Salazar, Presidenta of AMUPAKIN, talks about the pandemic from her perspective, living in a road-accessible community of the Upper Napo region of the Ecuadorian Amazon. She speaks in Spanish. In time we will create subtitles for these videos and also provide transcripts. It is provided for general interest and as part of a collection of reference material for an article … …

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Pandemic in the Amazon

This is an expanded version of an article I co-wrote with John Martin Pedersen, which appeared in The Conversation ‘How indigenous people in the Amazon are coping with the coronavirus pandemic‘. This expanded version includes several paragraphs that did not meet editorial approval. We also collect additional reference material here, especially statements and messages directly from the Amazon (particularly Ecuador and Peru) which were shared with us specifically for this purpose. This is work in progress [last edit: … …

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organising

degrowth2020: food matters

Call for interventions – *Food matters* the role of your dinner plate in degrowing the economy: Extended deadline: Tuesday, March 10 A subtheme at *Degrowth2020* the 7th International Degrowth and 16th ISEE Joint Conference: Building Alternative Livelihoods in times of ecological and political crisis *Manchester 1 to 5 September 2020* As the world races toward a projected 9 billion inhabitants, the failings of dominant food systems are impossible to deny: severely polluting, the cause of malnutrition, unevenly distributed, … …

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talk

Green transition friction in the Ecuadorian Amazon

Title: Green transition friction in the Ecuadorian Amazon This is a talk (or guest lecture) I was invited to give at Centre for Alternative Technology in Machynlleth, Wales as part of their MSc Sustainability and Behaviour Change in January 2020. It is primarily based on field work done during two fellowships between 2016 and 2019 and draws on my research and collaborations with Amazonian peoples since 2005: Independent Social Research Foundation Fellow, Oxford Department of International Development, University … …

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talk

A more powerful narrative in support of agroecology

This talk I was invited to give at ‘Gearing up for agroecology: transforming publicly-funded research and innovation for the public good?’, a panel at Oxford Real Farming Conference in January 2020. Speakers: Helena Paul, EcoNexusNina Moeller, Centre for Agroecology, Water and Re silience (CAWR), Coventry UniversityAdam Payne, Landworkers’ Alliance (LWA)Patrick Mulvany, Food Ethics Council Join us to explore how to transform publicly-funded research for agroecology and help broaden the coalition – initiated at ORFC 2019 – pressing for … …

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talk

Radical transformation of not just our food systems, but of the whole of our world

This is a short talk I was invited to give on a panel at the Oxford Real Farming Conference in 2019 with the title ‘RECLAIMING RESEARCH FOR REAL FOOD & FARMING: resetting the agenda for the public good‘. In the talk I bring together some elements of my work on (the lack of) agroecological funding (shorter version in The Conversation) and the Amazon, where I have worked with Kichwa and Shipibo people since 2005. There is an audio … …

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report

Open Source Seed Networking

This is a report about open source seed that I co-authored with JM Pedersen, and which was commissioned by Hivos. It features a preface by Carol Gribnau, Director of the Green Society Program @ Hivos. The emerging network of open source seed projects is a significant contribution to biodiversity, climate chaos adaptation, and a healthy, satisfying dinner table. About a decade old, the translation of the Free Software principles and the Open Source methods into seeds, as in … …

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talk

The Amazon as horticultural artefact and why it matters

This is a Lightning Talk I was invited to give at ‘Science Uncovered‘: Friday 28 September is European Researcher’s night, and for the fourth time Manchester Museum will be hosting Science Uncovered Manchester – a special late opening showcasing Manchester’s finest researchers and their work for an adult audience. There’ll be research on show, music, drinks and a lively atmosphere. Our participation in Science Uncovered event is funded by the Natural History Museum, who’ve hosted this event successfully … …

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