The Edible Gardens Of Ethiopia

What is a beautiful garden to southern Ethiopian farmers? Anchored in the author’s perceptual approach to the people, plants, land, and food, The Edible Gardens of Ethiopia opens a window into the simple beauty and ecological vitality of an ensete garden. The ensete plant is only one among the many “unloved” crops that are marginalized and pushed close to disappearance by the advance of farming modernization and monocultural thinking. And yet its human companions, caught in a symbiotic and sensuous dialogue with the plant, still relate to each exemplar as having individual appearance, sensibility, charisma, and taste, as an epiphany of beauty and prosperity, and even believe that the plant can feel pain. Here a different story is recounted of these human-plant communities, one of reciprocal love at times practiced in an act of secrecy. The plot unfolds from the subversive and tasteful dimensions of gardening for subsistence and cooking in the garden of ensete through reflections on the cultural and edible dimensions of biodiversity to embrace hunger and beauty as absorbing aesthetic experiences in small-scale agriculture. Through this story, the reader will enter the material and spiritual world of ensete and contemplate it as a modest yet inspiring example of hope in rapidly deteriorating landscapes. Based on prolonged engagement with this “virtuous” plant of southwestern Ethiopia, this book provides a nuanced reading of the ensete ventricosum (avant-)garden and explores how the life in tiny, diverse, and womanly plots offers alternative visions of nature, food policy, and conservation efforts.

This volume explores the constitutive role of rhetoric in socio-cultural relations, where discursive persuasion is so important, and contains both theoretical chapters as well as fascinating examples of the ambiguities and effects of rhetoric used (un)consciously in social praxis. The elements of power, competition and political persuasion figure prominently. It is an accessible collection of studies, speaking to common issues and problems in social life, and shows the heuristic and often explanatory value of the rhetorical perspective.

The cultivation of the three sisters (corn, beans, and squash) on subsistence farms in El Salvador is a multispecies, world-making, and ongoing process. Milpa describes a small subsistence corn farm. It is derived from the word milli (‘field’, or a piece of land under active cultivation) in Nahuatl. The milpa is a farming practice that uses perennial, intercropping, and swidden (fire and fallow) techniques that predates the Spanish conquest of the Americas. Kneeling Before Corn focuses on the intimate relations that develop between plants and humans in the milpas of the northern rural region of El Salvador. It explores the ways in which more-than-human intimacies travel away from and return to the milpa through human networks. Collective and multivocal, this work reflects independent lines of investigation and multiple conversations between co-authors—all of whom have lived in El Salvador for extended periods of time. Throughout the six chapters, the co-authors invite readers to consider more-than-human intimacies by rethinking, experimenting with, and developing new ways of documenting, analyzing, and knowing the intimacies that form between humans and the plants that they cultivate, conserve, long for, and eat. This book offers an innovative account of rural El Salvador in the twenty-first century.

This illustrated guide and cookbook will introduce you to foods that are delicious, rich in vitamins and minerals, and yours for the picking. These so-called weeds can be found in your own garden or on a country walk, and are as nutritious as the more common vegetables. The first in a series on edible wild plants of Canada, this book describes over forty common weeds, indicates where they can be found, and explains how to prepare them by means of simple and original recipes. Winner of an international award for design excellence, Edible Garden Weeds of Canada has been so well received that it is now in its third printing. Published in trust for the National Museum of Natural Sciences

This literature review explores how political, economic and resource management policies and programs can reduce forest degradation and increase the contribution of forest goods and services to sustainable livelihood strategies. In Ethiopia, studies indicate that forest dependency is strong throughout the country, but the importance of forest income varies across different regions and wealth categories. Research suggests that improving forest product market governance is key to strengthening forest livelihood resiliency. Recent experiments with forest governance devolution have shown mixed results in terms of improving forest conditions and livelihoods. Smallholder land certification has met with considerable success, whereas participatory forest management schemes have positive ecological outcomes but fall short in terms of livelihood gains. In South Sudan, civil war has limited the depth and scope of research on dryland forests and livelihoods. Food security analyses indicate that the importance of forest income varies by region and season. Markets are poorly developed and forest governance systems are weak in many parts of the country. Key threats to forest livelihoods in both countries include: shifting climatic conditions, large-scale population movements, large-scale land acquisitions and weakened governance institutions; and in South Sudan, continuing violent conflict. In Ethiopia, research and policy reform should focus on the relationship between forest rights devolution, livelihoods, forest management practices and forest conditions as well as on the impacts of demographic change on forest-based livelihoods, forest management and forest cover. In South Sudan, research should focus on documenting the impacts of conflict on forest-based livelihoods with an view to structuring humanitarian aid programs in ways that mitigate the negative impacts.