Jessie Luna presented a paper “Cultural and economic treadmills explaining herbicide use in Burkina Faso” and moderated a session at the Pesticide Politics in Africa conference held in May at the Tropical Pesticide Research Institute (TPRI) in Arusha, Tanzania. She was also on the conference’s Scientific Committee. This interdisciplinary, international conference focused on the use, regulation and health effects of agrochemicals in sub-Saharan countries, and participants could sign The Arusha Call for Action on Pesticides.

Luna also presented a paper “Peasant essentialism in GMO debates: Bt cotton in Burkina Faso” at the 2019 Joint Annual Meetings and Conference of the Association for the Study of Food and Society (ASFS) and the Agriculture, Food, and Human Values Society (AFHVS). The theme of this year’s conference was “Finding Home in the ‘Wilderness’: Explorations in Belonging in Circumpolar Food Systems.” The University of Alaska Anchorage, in collaboration with Alaska Pacific University, hosted the conference in Anchorage in June.