Gary Paul Nabhan is an internationally celebrated nature writer, food and farming activist, and proponent of conserving the links between biodiversity and cultural diversity. He holds the W.K. Kellogg Endowed Chair in Sustainable Food Systems at the University of Arizona Southwest Center, where he works with students, faculty, and non-profits to build a more just, nutritious, sustainable, and climate-resilient foodshed spanning the US/Mexico border. He is the author of numerous books, including Growing Food in a Hotter, Drier Land, Renewing America’s Food Traditions, and Chasing Chiles. His latest book Mesquite: An Arboreal Love Affair is now available in paperback (Chelsea Green, June 2020). He lives in southern Arizona.
A Call for Community-Based Seed Diversity During the COVID-19 Pandemic
We would be remiss not to sow true, place-based seed sovereignty in every region and among every culture on this planet, well before a future crisis could uproot us again.
August 28, 2020
Mesquite: An Arboreal Love Affair: Excerpt
I am here to convince you that you may have never fully seen, smelled, heard, tasted, or been touched by a tree. In particular, I humbly submit that you and I have yet to fully fathom what a tree can be . . . or at least, what a mesquite tree can be to us.
August 24, 2020
Earth Day at 50: Towards a More Inclusive Environmental Movement
Does the environmental movement launched a half-century ago reflect the vibrant diversity of the American people? Does that movement address environmental justice issues that disproportionately affect people of color?
April 9, 2020
Food from the Radical Center: Excerpt
While the subject of this story is what we may call biocultural, eco-culinary, or reciprocal restoration, it is quite often enabled through a social process that has been called either community-based restoration, collaborative conservation, or cooperative collaboration.
March 6, 2019
Build a Border Wall? Here’s What Border Communities Say They Want Instead
For many of us who actually live along the U.S.-Mexico border, the “Mesquite Manifesto” addresses economic and climate problems by building up industry around the native tree.
February 27, 2019