AAG 2022: Territory as Life: Indigenous and Afro-Descendant Cosmosvisions and Radical Praxis for Food Sovereignty

In the face of climate change, arable land loss, and food system degradation, Indigenous and Afro-Descendant communities are frontline groups tackling agrobiodiversity conservation. Their work has often gone unrecognized at national and international policy levels; additionally, across the Americas they face increasing threats and violence as they defend lands and food systems. Despite erasure and violence, Indigenous and Afro-Descendant communities have still implemented cutting edge policy solutions for agrobiodiversity and land management, gaining legal protections and defending key agrobiodiversity reserves. To this end, this paper asks: how do land-based groups become constituted as actors with the capacity to express their interests against extractivist forces (such as mining and development) and displacement?; specifically, how do territorial claims surrounding agrobiodiversity practices lead to formalized land- rights and food-access protections? I examine manifestos, declarations, organizational websites and platforms, and other forms of discourse from specific communities in Latin America and the Appalachian US to highlight ways in which Indigenous and Afro-Descendant cosmovisions and ontologies are framed and articulated to foster grassroots demands, structure change, and radical praxis for holistic wellbeing. First Author: Veronica Limeberry, American University