Paper short abstract:

Land grant universities claim to engage in science for the public good even as their historical and contemporary research agendas threaten food sovereignty. Carter analyzes how food sovereignty activists actively resist agricolonialism and demand accountability in agricultural development projects.

Paper long abstract:

Land grant universities, established by United States federal policy through the Morill Acts of 1862 and 1890, purport to provide science for the public good and celebrate a history of popular agricultural education. Recent reporting from High Country News investigative reporters Robert Lee and Tristan Ahtone has inspired a critical re-examination of the land grant university’s complicity in Indigenous genocide in the US. These universities continue to profit from their historical land theft while expanding their colonial practices of disruption and co-optation of Indigenous food systems abroad. Such projects are examples of the land grant university’s continued engagement in colonial agricultural expansion under the guise of development. I analyze two such projects that were actively contested in global campaigns by food sovereignty social movement activists. Activists challenged researchers’ and university leaders’ claims of increased equity, food security, and sustainability in agricultural production while highlighting the projects’ threats to biodiversity, Indigenous foodways, and community health.The prioritization of corporate-controlled knowledge and an increased reliance upon chemical-dependent systems jeopardizes food sovereignty at local and global scales. Activists’ demands for accountability in agricultural research emphasize the importance of reparations and accountability. A food sovereignty approach to agricultural development reframes not only what counts as agriculture but also who counts in agriculture, and may inspire new mandates beyond the land grant mission.