Genetically Modified Democracy: Transgenic Crops in Contemporary India

Contents: 1. Introduction. Part One: Institutionalizing Biotechnology. 2. Revolution of the Chemists. 3. The Bureaucratic Consolidation of Biotechnology. Part Two: The Government of Biotechnology. 4. Regulating GM Crops. 5. Emergence and Deepening of Activism against GM Crops. Part Three: Remaking Agrarian Capitalism. 6. Profiting from Seeds. 7. Merchants of Knowledge. 8. Genetically Modified Democracy. Notes. References. Index. Genetically modified or transgenic crops are controversial across the world. Advocates see such crops as crucial to feeding the world s growing population; critics oppose them for pushing farmers deeper into ecological and economic distress, and for shoring up the power of agribusinesses. India leads the world in terms of the intensity of democratic engagement with transgenic crops. Aniket Aga explores the genealogy of conflicts of interest and disputes over truth that animate the debate in India around the commercial release of transgenic food crops. The debate may well transform agriculture and food irreversibly in a country already witness to widespread agrarian distress, and over three lakh suicides by farmers in the past two decades. Aga's research on seed companies, the government, farmers, and environmental NGOs, illustrates how the state, science, and agrarian capitalism interact in novel ways to alter the manner in which democracy is lived and understood. The book sheds light on the dynamics of technological change in unequal polities. Genetically Modified Democracy will be of interest to students and scholars of agriculture, politics, science, and society, environmental and farmers movements, sustainability, and biotechnology. It will also interest readers concerned about small farmers and the future of farming and food.…