Florentina Rodriguez, in fulfilling the requirements for an EdD in Educational and Professional Practice, has written and published a dissertation titled, They Forgot We Were Seeds: Critical Counter-Narratives Supporting Culturally Informed Community Seed Work.
This dissertation addresses disparity and extractive practices, outlines relational pathways for reciprocity and respecting communities of origin, and provides evaluation metrics and market enhancement to stakeholders in the small-scale seed industry.
Rodriguez utilized Critical Counter-Narrative as methodology and praxis. Through research vignettes rooted in her collaborative autoethnographic work, she presents critical counter-narratives that address inequities in small-scale seed systems. These narratives have been integrated into curriculum materials, forming an educational toolkit designed for professional use.
Rodriguez brings lived experience and deep community ties to her work. Through her business, Flora Seeds, she supports urban, nonprofit, and cooperative farms. She also serves on advisory boards for Ohio’s BIPOC Food & Farming Network (BFFN) and Seven Seed Sowers Cooperative, and she founded the Miami Valley Seed Commons, which builds a resilient, community-based local seedshed. Rodriguez serves as Director of Research and Project Development for The Lavender Project, a digital archive and storytelling initiative centering Black, BIPOC, and PoGM female and nonbinary queer farmers and food justice workers.
Read and download Rodriguez’s dissertation, They Forgot We Were Seeds: Critical Counter-Narratives Supporting Culturally Informed Community Seed Work here.
