What is it about?
In recent decades it has become quite common to think of traditional foods - and especially seeds, fruit and vegetables - as a kind of 'heritage' which is at risk and must be protected. There is more than one way to think about heritage, but one of the most common is to describe it as a kind of treasure which ought to be kept safe. This is so common as to seem natural or inevitable. In this article I examine how the metaphor of heritage as treasure is constructed in a range of media texts and one or two alternative ways of thinking about the same plants and seeds.
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Why is it important?
In this paper I argue that not only is the idea of heritage foods as treasure not inevitable, but it has important implications for how we value heritage, who gets to decide what heritage is, and ultimately who has access to and gets to profit from these important genetic and cultural resources in future.
Perspectives
I hope this article will encourage people to think a bit more critically about the heritage of seeds, fruit, vegetables and other kinds of food. They often seem to be just 'A Good Cause' and the claims made by any organisation are often repeated unquestioningly. It would be good if we could unpick some of these claims and consider whether we might use a slightly different metaphor or way of talking about food heritage, because ultimately it will lead us to do food heritage in different and hopefully better ways. We might also appreciate the work of some of the groups and people who are already providing an alternative.
Abigail Wincott
Falmouth University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Treasure in the vault: The guardianship of ‘heritage’ seeds, fruit and vegetables, International Journal of Cultural Studies, October 2017, SAGE Publications,
DOI: 10.1177/1367877917733541.
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