When
On Wednesday, May 1st, 9:30-10:30 am in ENR-2 Rm S-495, the Center for Regional Food Studies (CRFS) will host a work-in-progress seminar w/ Dr. Carrie Seay-Fleming to discuss her work entitled, "The Development Mirror: Making milpa an object of intervention.” Participants will receive a copy of the work-in-progress (abstract below) prior to the event and will gather in person to ask questions and provide constructive feedback to the author for next steps. There will be coffee and treats. Please reserve your spot by completing the form below. This invitation is open to anyone, particularly students and faculty. Please circulate the invitation widely and reserve your spot by completing this short Google form: https://forms.gle/vPAF3xM7YRXfmTqJA
The paper is titled, "The Development Mirror: Making milpa an object of intervention”.
Abstract: From food aid to the promotion of non-traditional export crops (NTXs), the US Agency for International Development’s (USAID) support for agricultural development programs that are harmful to food sovereignty in Global South countries is well documented. Less understood is when and why USAID promotes subsistence-oriented agriculture, agrobiodiversity, and traditional crops. In this article, I describe USAID’s efforts in Guatemala to bolster traditional milpa production as a part of their Feed the Future initiative. I demonstrate how milpa agriculture is promoted alongside non-traditional export crops—with the explicit admission that market-oriented production is not sufficient to improve household food security. While milpa promotion demonstrates cracks in the dominant neoliberal approach to food security, there remain significant differences between state programs and the ways Guatemalans envision food sovereignty. The main difference is that food sovereignty movements connect milpa practices to the formation of radical political subjects and push for the kinds of structural changes that are missing in USAID projects. Rather than a neoliberal attempt at cooptation, I argue that milpa promotion reflects cracks emerging in the neoliberal market-based development approach, while also representing a narrow misreading of milpa agriculture. This empirical case study of ‘New Green Revolution’ agricultural development programs in Guatemala contributes to a deeper theorization of hegemony, counter-hegemony, and cooptation in critical agrarian studies.