| Created in 2007, the Cultural Research Institute of Acadiana (CRIA) seeks to sustain the culture, agriculture, and traditions of South Louisiana through collecting edible, medicinal, and generally useful seeds and knowledge on living sustainable in Louisiana. In the natural disaster prone region of South Louisiana, CRIA is creating a bank for seeds and traditional knowledge through an online database accessible to the public. This will ensure the knowledge of Louisiana's elders is recorded and passed on to the future generations.
With each passing day, another local elder passes away and takes with them the memory and knowledge of rural life in Louisiana. As urban sprawl and industrial agriculture continue to dominant the American landscape and younger generations, South Louisiana is facing the loss of local agricultural information and the local seed varieties that our populations have historically depended on for food security. South Louisiana was once isolated, protected, and nourished by a vast and diverse system of wetlands and prairie, but development, oil drilling, and levee systems have undermined important pieces of our ecosystem and exposed its populations to natural disasters such as hurricanes and massive land loss. Methods to preserve unique, non-patented agricultural heirloom seeds and document a living, rural agricultural history will serve as two important historical preservation efforts. In turn, these collections and recordings can serve as a vehicle for further sustainable development in the region. The end result is a product that we hope will inspire community developers and rural landowners to re-incorporate the values and knowledge of our elders in an effort to cope with modern problems in food security and contribute to a revered sustainable and local agricultural economy. |
