Seeds in the Anthropocene: A Critical Lens on Ecology, Empire, and Epistemic Resistance

In the Anthropocene, the global ecological crisis is not only environmental but also epistemological and political. This paper examines seeds as critical analytical sites where ecological disruption, colonial history, and knowledge contestation converge. Through historical and ethnographic examples, it traces the shifting meanings and functions of seedsfrom ecological collaborators in multispecies networks to instruments of imperial extraction and capitalist commodification. The analysis reveals how modern seed regimes, shaped by genetic science and property law, have contributed to the erosion of agrobiodiversity and the enclosure of local knowledge systems. However, the paper also identifies a countercurrent: grassroots reflective seed practicessuch as Indigenous stewardship and community seed savingare challenging dominant regimes by reviving relational, situated, and non-commodified forms of knowledge and care. These practices are not romantic returns to the past but adaptive responses to planetary instability, grounded in performative and plural ecologies. The paper argues that seeds are not merely affected by the Anthropocene but illuminate its deepest structures. By reading seeds as agents of political economy and epistemic resistance, the study contributes to a rethinking of ecological futures beyond technoscientific fixes, emphasizing relational ethics, cognitive justice, and grassroots transformation.