A minor theory of the transit of materiality into discourse, Via Campesina.

In this thesis I explore how the material properties of plant seed enter the political discourses of the international peasant coalition the Via Campesina and coalition member the National Fanners Union of Canada (NFU), querying how this process might be employed as a resource for a transformative eco-social politics. I employ several post-structural theoretical constructs, configuring them together as a "minor theory". This minor theory provides the basis for a "minor" reading of three sets of Via Campesina and NFU texts. The aim of these readings is to track the movement of seed from a local agricultural concern to a transitive political one, across both the material and discursive registers. In surfacing the presence of the seed's physical properties in the three texts, I highlight the distinctions between the constraining seed of corporate industrial agriculture, and the social and agroecological opportunities resulting from what I call a "Seed Event".

James VI of Scotland Letter, 1579

This letter authorizes William Hamilton of Portmollart to repair to Edinburgh notwithstanding the acts discharging the Hamiltons from being within six miles of the King’s person. James VI and James I (June 19, 1566 – March 27, 1625) was King of Scots as James VI from July 24th, 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the English and Scottish crowns on March 24, 1603 after the passing of Elizabeth I.