Over the last three decades, genetically modified crops have dramatically reshaped global food regimes and altered the ecological balance of entire bioregions of the world. Just as importantly, GM crops such as soybeans and maize have become valuable commodities and a strategic geopolitical asset in current global economic markets. Yet, whereas GM crops are widely produced worldwide today, their historical trajectory has been indissolubly shaped by techno-scientific and political patterns initiated in the Americas. This course aims first to retrace some of the initial steps that led to the so-called “gene revolution” and its historical link to the Rockefeller Foundation’s sponsored Green Revolution. Just like the Green Revolution emerged from the interplay of American political actors, scientists and public-private foundations, GM crops were a product of a similar interplay of scientific research and geo-economic interests. Second, this course will take a closer look at the socioenvironmental impacts of GM agriculture in the specific political and geographic contexts where they have led and, in some cases, are still leading agricultural regimes. More specifically, it will analyze how the proliferation of unsustainable agricultural regimes shaped by GM crops is part of a worldwide trend that environmental historians John McNeill and Peter Engelke have defined as the Great Acceleration – the global transformation of the biosphere since post-World War II. In this context, it will demonstrate how the proliferation of GM agriculture in the Americas is linked to relevant environmental issues that characterize our time: e.g., the destruction of the Brazilian Amazon Rainforest, global CO2 contamination, exposure and consumption to unhealthy chemical substances and rural poverty in countries such as Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia, Uruguay, and Paraguay.
- Trainer/in: Claudio De Majo