Responsible to whom? Seed innovations and the corporatization of agriculture

Abstract

In this paper, I use historical description to trace the processes by which hybrid seed innovations and their successors – genetically engineered (GE) seed systems – were co-produced with a techno-scientific infrastructure favoring chemical corporations and productivist farming at the expense of small farmers and alternative ways of organizing rural life. Using a discourse analysis method, I also shed light on why historical shifts in seed innovation were largely unmarked by controversy. I retrace the road to GE's success as a cultural enterprise, exploring the likelihood that this success was paved not just with the co-production of technologies and corporate interests but also with cultural descriptions of seeds and farming. Looking at Canadian seed innovation through the lenses of technopolitics as well as cultural studies, as this paper does, serves to underscore the importance of attending to the responsibility of innovations in their design – before the politics of technologies get fixed into material forms, technological systems and into cultural practice.