Seed Saving and Sharing in the Southwest

Name: Seed Saving and Sharing in the Southwest
Brand: UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO PRESS
Price: 55.99 AUD
Availability: PreOrder

Elemental Wisdom from Pre-Contact to Today

By: Susannah Abbey

Write A Review

Paperback | 20 April 2027

At a Glance

Paperback
296 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
25.4 x 17.78 x 2.54

Paperback

RRP $63.99

$55.99

13%OFF

or 4 interest-free payments of $14.00 with

Available: 20th April 2027

Preorder. Will ship when available.

A deft exploration of seed preservation in the Southwestern Borderlands, perfect for anyone seeking to understand and participate in regional seed-saving and seed-banking efforts.

Landscape architect Susannah Abbey’s Seed Saving and Sharing in the Southwest: Elemental Wisdom from Pre-Contact to Today surveys the politics, philosophy, and ecology of seed preservation in the American Southwest and northern Mexico from pre-European contact to the present.

Abbey presents a cultural history of seed saving and plant domestication, introducing the dryland farming traditions of Indigenous, Hispanic, and American farmers. She examines modern industrial agriculture and its impacts on small farmers, biodiversity, and food systems. Abbey explores the contemporary seed-banking movement—its philosophies, key figures, and intersections with art and community practice—while also addressing seed ecology and crops suited to dryland farming.

By tracing connections between past and present, local practices and global initiatives, Abbey demonstrates how individual actions carry social, scientific, and cultural significance. She shows how the kitchen gardener using locally sourced heirloom seeds stands in continuity with ancient Puebloan farmers in the Southwest and with scientists safeguarding global biodiversity at the Svalbard Global Seed Bank in Norway. An essential resource for small-scale farmers and home gardeners in desert climates, Seed Saving and Sharing in the Southwest offers an engaging entry point into a vital and growing movement.

Industry Reviews

"Susannah Abbey has done a great service to future generations by detailing how the seed-saving movement in Arid America began. Taking the story back well before the first gardening magazines featured seed savers in their pages, she corrects lapses and errors in that history, honoring the Original Keepers of the Seed as well as nearly forgotten activists. I am grateful that she has provided us with a richer, more multicultural account of these episodes than what has ever appeared in print before." -- Gary Paul Nabhan, author of Enduring Seeds: Native American Agriculture and Wild Plant Conservation "Seed Saving and Sharing in the Southwest weaves together threads of geology, history, politics, and Indigenous practice to demonstrate solutions to our most urgent collective problems. The seed keepers introduced to us throughout this book hold inspiration and answers for us all." -- Tessa Desmond, director of the Seed Farm at Princeton University

Shipping

	Standard Shipping	Express Shipping
Metro postcodes:	$9.99	$14.95
Regional postcodes:	$9.99	$14.95
Rural postcodes:	$9.99	$14.95

How to return your order

At Booktopia, we offer hassle-free returns in accordance with our returns policy. If you wish to return an item, please get in touch with Booktopia Customer Care.

Additional postage charges may be applicable.