Book Review 21

Review

Title: Seeds, Science, and Struggle

ISBN 13: 9780262517744

Published: 2012

Pages: 219

Cost: $22

Rating (1-5): 4

Submitted By: Noaman, Maher Mohammed

Date posted: December 07, 2012

A well-written book about political struggles generated by the introduction of transgenic organisms

Abby Kinchy, the author of Seeds, Science and Struggle book is Assistant Professor in the Department of Science and Technology Studies at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Co-editor of Controversies in Science and Technology: From Maize to Menopause. Kinchy focuses on social conflicts over canola in Canada and maize in Mexico, drawing out their linkages to the global food system and international environmental domination. The book demonstrates the deficiency of dominant models of scientific risk governance, which fringes different visions of rural living and sustainable food production. She takes us into the heart of the intense political struggles created by introducing transgenic organisms in Mexico and Canada. The book spotlights the struggle taking place around the world against transgenic crops and the companies that market them. The author describes the strategies and motives of activists in Mexico and Canada and presents valuable approaches into the issues involved. The book successfully integrates social movement studies and the politics of science and technology and focuses on government and industry efforts to confine public debate to the singular realm of science-based risk, and reveals the unstable nature of global politics around the agricultural biotechnology. The book covers up several aspects of politicization and scientization of public debate about the contamination of crops resulting from pollen drift and seed mixing. It includes seven comprehensive chapters starting with genetic engineering and transgenic crops and makes distinction between the new techniques of biotechnology and earlier methods of modifying the genetic makeup of a plant population through other breeding methods. The second chapter focuses on rural sociology including and generating a variety of theoretical perspectives on the globalization of agrifood systems through the growth of transnational agribusiness and global commodity chains. The third chapter talks about the epistemic boomerang and how different it is from the model of transnational advocacy in that it is not necessarily transnational. The fourth chapter covers some discussion on the history of the idea of biodiversity governance in Mexico and the research on transgenes in Mexican maize and also the politics of biosafety monitoring. The fifth chapter discusses the patents on out-of-place genes while chapter six discusses the issue of protecting organic markets. The final chapter concludes all issues related to science and struggles for change. At the end of the book there is a very useful summary for each chapter. I really enjoyed reading this book. The book is presented in a user-friendly format making it available to a wide variety of readers. It is appropriate for the academic (undergraduate and graduate students studying regulations and processes of genetically modified crops and global concerns about transgenic plants.) It is also useful for research, consulting, and end-user communities