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IN RECENT YEARS
Canadians have become more and more concerned about
the origins of their food and the environmental
impacts of pesticides in agriculture. What is less
well known is that pesticide corporations such as
Monsanto and Du Pont have bought their way into the
seed industry and are taking control of what was
once the exclusive domain of farmers.
In Good Crop / Bad
Crop Devlin Kuyek deftly examines the economic
and environmental background of the modern seed
trade from a Canadian perspective. Historically
seeds were viewed more as public goods than as
commodities, and plant breeding objectives were
widely shared by scientists, governments, and
farmers. Now that approach is changing; seeds have
become increasingly commodified, and plant breeding
has become subject to corporate
priorities.
Farmers and citizens
in Canada, Kuyek points out, need to heed the
hard-won lessons from the developing world, where
farmers greatly damaged by the much-heralded
approaches of the Green Revolution are now taking
steps to reclaim control over seed supplies, food
security, and their futures.
Devlin Kuyek is
the Canadian co-ordinator for GRAIN, an
international ngo that promotes sustainable
management and agricultural biodiversity. Kuyek is
also a member of the Groupe de recherche:
technosciences du vivant et
société at the University of
Quebec at Montreal.
Launches and
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