David Cleveland

Professor

Contacts

Environmental Studies Program
University of California, Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara, CA 93106

tel: (805) 893-7502
fax: (805) 893-8686
cleveland@es.ucsb.edu

Personal web site

Research Description

Cleveland's general research interest is the role of agriculture in balancing resource use and distribution with human population and consumption. Specific topics include local and scientific epistemology and knowledge, plant breeding and biotechnology, conservation of crop genetic resources, population dynamics and agricultural change, small-scale farming and household gardens, and development policy.

Biography

David Cleveland is a human ecologist who has worked on sustainable agriculture research and development with small-scale farmers around the world, including in Bawku (Ghana), Oaxaca (Mexico), and Zuni, Hopi in the US southwest. His current research includes farmer and scientific knowledge and practice in plant breeding and crop genetic resources conservation, the genetic, ecological and sociocultural impact of genetically engineered maize and rice varieties (Mexico and China), and small-scale agriculture and changing land use (Santa Barabara County, USA).

Selected Publications

• Extending Darwin’s analogy: bridging differences in selection between farmers and plant breeders, Economic Botany, In Press, 2007, Cleveland, D.A. and D. Soleri.
• Tejate: Theobroma cacao and T. bicolor in a traditional beverage from Oaxaca, Mexico, Food and Foodways, In Press, 2007, Soleri, D. and D.A. Cleveland.
• Farmer choice of sorghum varieties in southern Mali, Human Ecology, 34(3), 2006, 331-353, Lacy, S., D.A. Cleveland and D. Soleri.
• Farmer knowledge and scientist knowledge in sustainable agricultural development, Local Science versus Global Science: Approaches To Indigenous Knowledge in International Development, 2006, 211-229, Cleveland, D.A. and D. Soleri.
• Transgenic crops and crop varietal diversity: the case of maize in Mexico, BioScience, 56(6), 2006, 503-513, Soleri, D., D.A. Cleveland and F. Aragón Cuevas.
• Transgenic maize and Mexican maize diversity: Risky synergy?, Agriculture and Human Values, 23(1), 2006, 27-31, Soleri, Daniela and David A. Cleveland.
• What kind of social science does the CGIAR, and the world, need?, Culture & Agriculture, 28, 2006, 4-9, Cleveland, D. A.
• Debate over a GM rice trial in China, [In Letters] Science, 310, 2005, 231-232, Cleveland, D.A. and D. Soleri.
• Detecting (trans)gene flow to landraces in centers of crop origin: lessons from the case of maize in Mexico, Environmental Biosafety Research, 4(4), 2005, 197-208, Cleveland, D.A., D. Soleri, F. Aragón Cuevas, J. Crossa and P. Gepts.
• Understanding the potential impact of transgenic crops in traditional agriculture: maize farmers' perspectives in Cuba, Guatemala & Mexico, Environmental Biosafety Research, 4(3), 2005, 141-166, Soleri, D., D.A. Cleveland, F. Aragón Cuevas, H. Ríos Labrada, M.R. Fuentes Lopez, and S.H. Sweeney.