Pei Jiang

Seeds are material, relational, and political objects that carry knowledge, cultural memory, and symbolic meanings. They reproduce themselves, undergo breeder-driven improvements, create economic value, and serve as strategic resources contested by stakeholders. Seen this way, seeds emerge as the nexus of political struggle and technological innovation. Examining seed commodification and conservation also involves understanding the power relations through which humans integrate nature and life into productive activities. My thesis explores how multiple stakeholders in China have governed seeds over the past seventy years and how farmers and NGO workers (and even crops themselves) develop everyday modes of resistance to undermine and subvert this control. Applying a multi-sited ethnographic approach focused on foxtail millet, I studied three key locations: Aohan Banner in Inner Mongolia, considered the centre of origin for foxtail millet; Wangjinzhuang village in Hebei Province, which has a community seed bank facilitating the exchange of local varieties between villagers and those from Aohan; and China’s southern breeding base in Sanya City, where winter breeding activities occur. Building on Foucault’s concept of biopower, I extend its application to seeds and crops, revealing the intersections between power, technology, institutions, and life governance. Three mechanisms—legislative implementation, biotechnology application, and scientific farming knowledge dissemination—are central to regulating plant life. Legal frameworks enable private sector involvement in crop reproduction, legitimising capitalist control over life. Advanced technologies, including biotechnology, extend biopower to the molecular level. The transmission of scientific agricultural knowledge reconfigures farming practices, often amplifying power asymmetries between local actors and scientific elites. This commodification of seeds neglects their non-economic values and diminishes plant genetic diversity. Government-led conservation has proven insufficient in preserving seeds’ embedded labour practices and relationships. In contrast, farmer-led seed regimes and collaborations are vital for preserving crop diversity and the broader values of seeds. Practical activities—spanning production, culinary uses, traditional medicine, folklore, and festivals—demonstrate peasants’ deep connection to foxtail millet. In partnership with NGOs, breeders, and markets, peasants have constructed community seed banks and reestablished indigenous seed trade routes, facilitating seed exchange and the sale of landrace products. These practices challenge stereotypes of peasants as ignorant or backward, highlighting the importance of non-elite knowledge in sustaining biodiversity and environmental health. This research contributes a biopolitical perspective to agrarian change in China. The history of agricultural capitalisation involves not only controlling means of production but also governing life itself. However, due to the biological resistance of plants and human actors’ resistance to capitalist control, this governance remains incomplete, offering avenues for subversion and resistance.