Governing the gene: The politics of transgenic agriculture and the future of food

Genetically modified (GM) crops promise, say the technology's proponents, to remake global agriculture in a host of positive ways, from re-democratizing agricultural production to reducing global hunger. Yet there are good reasons to be skeptical of these claims. This dissertation offers a new, critical reading of GM crop technologies, with two main goals. First, the dissertation employs insights from science and technology studies (S&TS) to give a politically and historically informed account of what GM crops mean for the present and future of the food system. The resulting picture is not a flattering one. It shows GM crops to be an extension of a long-standing global agricultural trend, toward ever greater commodification and consolidation of all aspects of food provisioning. These characteristics of contemporary agricultural organization are, this dissertation argues, currently promoting or exacerbating a host of problems, from environmental distress to global power and economic inequities. In their present form, then, and viewed from a political perspective, GM crops threaten to worsen rather than improve global agricultural conditions. Second, and more broadly, the dissertation draws from the political contestation over GM crops to glean lessons about the governance of complex technological systems. In pursuit of these goals, the dissertation's opening chapters provide a technological history of food provisioning, from pre-Neolithic times to the present age. Later chapters consider the Zambian government's refusal in 2002-2003 to accept GM food aid from the United States, the global food riots of 2008 and the narrow technical response to hunger generated by the international community, and the broad challenges presented by the further industrialization of food and agriculture. Ultimately, though critical of the present trajectory of GM crop development, this dissertation is not an argument against GM crops or against technological development. Rather, it is a warning about the system of food provisioning that this particular technological form is serving to constitute and reinforce. GM crops may yet be used in ways that are broadly beneficial. For this to happen, though, dramatic changes must occur to the system of agriculture of which they are a part, and other technological futures must be imagined.