Seeds and their potential in sustainable food: Raquel Ajates, Daniel Carasso Fellow 2021

The first edition of the Daniel Carasso Fellowship awarded Raquel Ajates for her extraordinary scientific career and a research project focused on the study of seeds, which she is developing at the National University of Distance Education (UNED). This program is part of the first steps of an adventure that the Daniel and Nina Carasso Foundation began in December 2020 after several years convening the Daniel Carasso Award. The programme, which has already opened its second call, consists of two postdoctoral grants for research in sustainable food in Spain and aims to support researchers committed to the transition towards more sustainable, fair and respectful food systems for people and ecosystems.

The Daniel Carasso Fellowship requires that researchers be nominated by other researchers. In this case, Raquel Ajates was nominated through Carmen Lozano-Cabedo, a researcher at the Department of Sociology (Social Structure) of the UNED, to promote the project The challenge of seed digitalization: sustainability, big data and the social movement for open source seed systems. Thanks to the granting of the grant, Ajates returned to Spain after several years developing his research work in the United Kingdom, where he collaborated in two citizen science and sustainability projects of the European Commission within the Horizon 2020 program, called WeObserve and GROW Observatory, both with a strong transdisciplinary element, as well as in a multi-institutional innovation project. IFSTAL, which has offered hundreds of master’s and PhD students in England the opportunity to learn how to research on food and agriculture beyond their own disciplines, applying a systems approach.

On the occasion of the opening of the second edition of the Daniel Carasso Fellowship, we spoke with Raquel Ajates, a researcher who was selected in the first edition together with Daniel Gaitán, about what it has meant to be awarded and the progress made in the project since it was awarded.

What does your research project “The challenge of seed digitalization: sustainability, big data and the social movement for open source seed systems” consist of, with which you were selected in the first call for the Daniel Carasso Fellowship?

My project maps and analyzes the landscape of seed systems from an integrated perspective, investigating the socioeconomic, environmental and political dimensions with an international lens and with a focus on the Spanish context. I am exploring how cultivated seeds are governed, shared, and protected to identify possibilities to maximize their contribution to biodiversity, social justice, and food system sustainability, as well as mechanisms to reduce the co-option of alternative regenerative practices.

The aim is to investigate how commons principles and digital open source movements can help curb the privatisation of seeds and benefit their diversity, exploring new governance models within the current legal framework, and also possible future frameworks. The project uses a combination of methodologies, including engagement strategies and artistic commissions to engage a wide range of knowledge types, experts and audiences for greater impact.

Why are seeds one of the most unknown or forgotten areas within food policies?

For decades, seeds have been, and continue to be, one of the least visible and talked about aspects of the food system. Despite the renewed interest in short marketing channels and the growing motivation of consumers to know where what they eat comes from, it is difficult to find out the type of seed used in the cultivation of the food we buy. Even in farmers’ markets or by visiting the growing areas directly, the conversations usually remain at the level of cultivation and distribution methods, for example: ecological method, biodynamic, permaculture, Participatory Guarantee Systems, etc., without going into the deep and early layer of the production process such as seeds. It rarely comes to light where they come from, whether they are hybrids or open-pollinated, homegrown, traditional varieties, imported, etc.

The importance of seeds as a key element in achieving sustainable and healthy food systems needs to be given more visibility. Beyond this, these nuclei of life are closely related to many other problems of the dominant production models of which society in general is more aware, including the very serious loss of diversity in varieties in the fields and on our plates, the reduced resilience to climate change of industrial agriculture, the growing concentration of power in each link of the food system cycle and inadequate governance models, as well as the strong loss of knowledge and cultural practices related to the cultivation of local varieties that have disappeared or are in danger.

Spain has one of the highest levels of biodiversity and cultivated diversity in Europe. In addition, in Spain there are organizations, networks and initiatives, such as Red de Semillas, that have been working for many years to conserve and improve agricultural biodiversity and the rights of producers to grow and save their own seeds. It is essential to support and make these initiatives visible so that they amplify their scope and potential to generate positive change at local, national and European level.

One of the objectives of the Daniel Carasso Fellowship is the generation of multidisciplinary knowledge around sustainable food, integrating professionals from different disciplines into research processes. How has it materialized in the development of your research project in recent years?

The food system is both guilty and victim of a perfect storm of public health, social justice, and climate emergency crises. These interrelated crises require a transdisciplinary vision to achieve truly transformative and equitable change. My research has always been framed at the crossroads of these global challenges from a transdisciplinary lens. My training and research experience have their roots in the Centre for Food Policy (City, University of London), a centre internationally recognised since the 90s for being the first in the world to investigate dynamics of governance, production and consumption of food in a systemic way, being a pioneer in its perspective of integrated food policies that take into account environmental aspects. social and public health.

My subsequent experience in highly transdisciplinary European Horizon 2020 citizen science projects also allowed me to collaborate with a wide variety of disciplines, from soil scientists, design academics, space scientists, sociologists, agronomists, etc., as well as with professionals from civil society organisations and public policy makers.

Therefore, the Daniel Carasso Fellowship has allowed me to continue promoting that transdisciplinary lens in Spain by being part of the essence and objectives of the call. My project incorporates the perspectives not only of different academic disciplines, but also values the knowledge of professionals working in civil society networks, producers and artists. For example, I have conducted interviews with farmers, conservators of traditional varieties, lawyers, agronomists, ecologists, experts in international law, etc. The project also includes the development of three artistic curatorships – a portable seed bank, a work on physical seeds and a work using the digitized genetic sequence of seeds – in collaboration with the Daniel and Nina Carasso Foundation, UNED50, the Museum of Rural Life and the Planea Network.

What has it meant to you to have been awarded the Daniel Carasso Fellowship? How have you evolved since your project began?

I’m a little more than halfway through the project, which started in November 2021. For me, the Daniel Carasso Fellowship has been the perfect link to support my transition from the British academic system to the Spanish one and to be able to count on the support to carry out a transdisciplinary proposal in an area of research in which most projects are still carried out in disciplinary silos.

The Daniel Carasso Fellowship has provided me with great opportunities to develop my research career, from access to the Foundation’s extensive network of experts in food and citizen art, to my participation in the Organizing Committee and as a speaker at unoconcinco – the first transdisciplinary conference on healthy and sustainable food in Spain – and my participation in the Sustainable Food Motor Group – a transdisciplinary and sustainable food group. multi-actor – as an advisor in the design process of the headquarters of the Carasso Foundation in Madrid, a cultural and research space based on the principles of the social and solidarity economy through which the Foundation will create a multi-network space to promote its lines of social and environmental action.

What has your incorporation to the department you have joined contributed?

My incorporation has brought a new dimension to the research on fairer, healthier and more sustainable food systems of the Department of Sociology of the UNED. Collaborations have also arisen both in teaching tasks in programs related to my lines of work and in joint conference panels, for example, at the IX International Congress of Agroecology held in January 2023 in Seville and organized by the Laboratory of History of Agroecosystems of the Pablo de Olavide University and the think tank Alimentta. The Department of Sociology of the UNED is a very professional, friendly team and I could not have asked for a better welcome. I am very grateful for all your support and good atmosphere.

Give us three reasons why we should encourage the scientific community to participate in this program with their research projects.

I could give many more than three reasons. On a personal level, the Foundation’s team is fantastic, highly expert in their areas, open to ideas and suggestions, with great expertise and a consistent attitude of listening and improvement. Feeling accompanied by a team like this is a very important reason.

At an academic level, the Daniel Carasso Fellowship is one of the few postdoctoral research grants in Spain in which the selected person becomes the principal investigator of their own project instead of joining the projects of other teams. The transdisciplinary approach of the call helps both people who, like me, already applied that perspective, and those who want to experience it for the first time.

In addition, the Fellowship opportunities will continue after the two years as we are in the process of creating the Daniel Carasso Fellows Network. Logistically, the Daniel Carasso Fellowship offers a generous budget for both salary and research expenses and extensive connections and synergies with the Foundation’s robust network of contacts. It is a unique opportunity to learn, collaborate and contribute to the effort that is being carried out by many organizations and groups in Spain to pave the transition towards fairer, healthier and more sustainable food systems.

Key data of the call

• Call for nominations open until March 10, 2023.

• Two grants endowed with €160,000 each for the recruitment and support of research activities.

• Aimed at researchers from any scientific discipline and nationality, with postdoctoral experience of 2 to 7 years

• Candidates must be nominated by an established researcher from a university or research centre in Spain, public or private non-profit.