Cathleen McCluskey is the advocacy and communications director for Organic Seed Alliance. She leads our legal and cultural advocacy work developing policies that support organic agriculture and farmers’ rights to save seed. She co-directs OSA’s State of Organic Seed project and leads federal policy initiatives targeting Congress and federal agencies. Her research focuses on seed systems, intellectual property, market concentration, germplasm management and diversity, data access and transparency, and democratization of science and knowledge. Cathleen holds a PhD in Environment and Resources and an MS in Agroecology from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
Selected Publications
- McCluskey, C. and Tracy, W.F. (2021) Engaging Farmer Stakeholders: Maize Producers’ Perceptions of and Strategies for Managing On-Farm Genetic Diversity in the Upper Midwest. Sustainability 2021, 13(16), 8843; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13168843.
- Colley, M., Dawson, J., McCluskey, C., Myers, J., Tracy, W., & Lammerts van Bueren, E. (2021). Exploring the emergence of participatory plant breeding in countries of the Global North – a review. The Journal of Agricultural Science, 1-19. doi:10.1017/S0021859621000782.
- Op-ed: How Patents Threaten Small Seed Companies (Civil Eats, 2020)
- Banking on Seeds for Our Future (Edge Effects, 2018)
- Dawson, J., Healy, K., and McCluskey, C. (2017) Organic Vegetable Trials and Plant Breeding Needs Assessment and Strategy for National Collaboration. University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA. (Accessed November 2018)