Seeds of Resistance by Mark Schapiro

Author:Mark Schapiro
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781510705807
Publisher: Hot Books
Published: 2018-03-14T16:00:00+00:00

WITH EVERY PASSING day and with nearly every accumulating study, GMOs are looking less and less like the “significant equivalent” to conventional crops that they were declared to be more than two decades ago. It can cost upwards of $130 million to develop a genetically engineered seed, which is one reason why their expansion into the food system has been accompanied by a tightening of control over seeds. The expense and complexity of producing genetically engineered organisms, and the aggressive patent prerogatives needed to defend them, led to a concentration of power within a secretive group of companies over the most basic element of our existence—seeds, and the food from which they grow.

All these factors have pushed us toward a food system that is less diverse, more insecure, and delivering increasingly consequential environmental costs. “We’re sitting ducks,” says Major Goodman, the plant scientist at North Carolina State University. “The level of uniform germplasm throughout the world, we’re just waiting for some bacteria or fungus to find a spot of vulnerability. It’s not a matter of if, but when. Eventually it will catch up with us.”

But maybe not.

Mention the word “seed” and people most often jump to the word “Monsanto.” I heard this many times when describing this book—“oh seeds, Monsanto, right?” Somehow a single company succeeded in becoming the go-to association for what is the quintessential life force, often no bigger than a fingernail, that lies at the root of our survival. But a vast network of people around the world, speaking multiple languages, living in highly different places and situations, are connected by their determination to reclaim the seed from the hold of that or any other company.

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