JANUARY 2022 | ISSUE 2 | TS DIGESTSPRING 2022 | THE SCIENTIST 8181unless it was collected and maintained
by settler scientists and seed sellers. In the
1940s and ’50s, agricultural development
programs in Latin America sought to trans-
form “traditional” peasant farmers—often
Indigenous peoples—into “modern” culti-
vators complete with “modern” seeds and
methods. Agricultural researchers partic-
ipated in and celebrated these programs.
They based their plans for new scientist-led
conservation in seed banks on the expecta-
tion that “traditional” and Indigenous seeds
would, like their cultivators, disappear.
Until the 1970s, few attempted to resist
the idea that farmers identified as tradi-
tional, peasant, or Indigenous would or
must be transformed into so-called modern
farmers or—far more likely—be displaced
from their land by those with more money
and power. As many accounts have shown,
the result of top-down agricultural develop-
ment was often human catastrophe.
Several factors justified urgent interven-
tions such as salvaging endangered varieties
for seed bank storage. Conservationists intro-
duced technical concepts such as the “genetic
erosion” of crop species, constructed an ever-
greater number of cold-storage facilities for
seeds, and discussed abstract imperatives
such as enhancing global food security. These
concepts and tools allowed conservationists
to ignore those seeds’ originators—typically
peasant and Indigenous farmers whose lives
and livelihoods were made precarious in the
race to “modernize” agriculture.
Understanding this history is crucial.
Whenever conservationists today rely on
inherited ideas, tools, and strategies with-
out questioning how and why they came
to be, they risk perpetuating outdated nar-
ratives and, worse, the politics embedded
within those narratives.
So where should they, and all of us,
begin anew when it comes to ensuring a
future in which diverse crops—and diverse
farmers—flourish? One place to start is in
rethinking the master narrative of inevita-
ble extinction. Rather than warning of irre-versible loss, we can focus on those farmers
who still experiment with their seeds and
thereby sustain the evolution and adap-
tation of crop species. Or, we can support
public breeders in restoring diversity from
seed banks to field crops, work that remains
woefully underfunded. And instead of only
highlighting imminent destruction, we can
emphasize the resilient crops and commu-
nities that survive despite decades of polit-
ical and economic interventions aimed at
their erasure—and invest our energy and
resources in their regeneration and growth.
We are so immersed in threat and
endangerment with respect to the future of
crop diversity that, as the historian Court-
ney Fullilove observes, “It’s hard to conceive
of a style of preservation that eludes the[se]
specters.” But we can and should try. gHelen Anne Curry is an associate pro-
fessor in the Department of History and
Philosophy of Science at the University
of Cambridge.PHAGOCIDAL MACROPHAGES:
A NEW BATTLE TACTIC AGAINST
RESISTANT CANCERS
We spoke with Stephanie Dougan about
her research developing new immunotherapies
for resistant tumors.STEPHANIE DOUGAN, PHD
Harvard Medical School
Dana Farber Cancer InstituteLISTEN HERE
the-scientist.com/phagocidal-macrophages-a-new-battle-tactic-against-resistant-cancersPHAGOCIDAL MACROPHAGES:
A NEW BATTLE TACTIC AGAINST
RESISTANT CANCERS
We spoke with Stephanie Dougan about
her research developing new immunotherapies
for resistant tumors.STEPHANIE DOUGAN, PHD
Harvard Medical School
Dana Farber Cancer InstituteLISTEN HERE
the-scientist.com/phagocidal-macrophages-a-new-battle-tactic-against-resistant-cancers