Another Technoscience is Possible

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Agricultural Lessons for the Posthumanities

edited by Gabriela Méndez Cota

Introduction: The Posthuman Life of Agriculture: Local Knowledges, Open Source Lives

When Foucault introduced the concept of biopolitics, he referred to a historically specific power agenda involving a particular approach to life. This approach was at the root of the modern sciences of biology and political economy, both of which set out to describe, explain and manage their objects of study as abstract processes of production and reproduction. Agricultural science must be situated in relation to the biopolitical agenda of 'applying' the modern scientific approach to the management of social life. The scientification of agriculture took place in the United States towards the end of the 19th century, through a process that entailed both a delegitimation of farmer-generated knowledges and the production of new, modern subjectivities. As farmers became entrepreneurs in need of scientific education and advice, newly trained agronomists devoted themselves to designing fertilizers, pesticides and hybrid seeds with the goal of maximizing yields. Public institutions were created which coordinated agricultural production with both science and trade policy. Agricultural science was thus inseparable from the process which transformed much of US agriculture into transnational agribusiness, and local farming networks all over the world into consumer endpoints of a globalized food industry. (more...)

Readings

Alison G. Power

Ecosystem Services and Agriculture: Tradeoffs and Synergies

Andrew K. Evers, Amanda Bambrick, Simon Lacombe, Michael C. Dougherty, Matthias Peichl, Andrew M. Gordon, Naresh V. Thevathasan, Joann Whalen and Robert L. Bradley

Potential Greenhouse Gas Mitigation through Temperate Tree-Based Intercropping Systems

Vincent Thieu, Gilles Billen, Josette Garnier and Marc Benoît

Nitrogen Cycling in a Hypothetical Scenario of Generalised Organic Agriculture in the Seine, Somme and Scheldt Watersheds

Acácio A. Navarrete, Fabiana S. Cannavan, Rodrigo G. Taketani and Tsiu M. Tsai

A Molecular Survey of the Diversity of Microbial Communities in Different Amazonian Agricultural Model Systems

Wagner Bettiol, Raquel Ghini, José Abrahao Haddad Galvao, Marcos Antônio Vieira Ligo and Jeferson Luiz de Carvhalo Mineiro

Soil Organisms in Organic and Conventional Cropping Systems

Chengyun Li, Xiahong He, Shusheng Zhu, Huiping Zhou, Yunyue Wang, Yan Li, Jing Yang, Jinxiang Fan, Jincheng Yang, Guibin Wang, Yunfu Long, Jiayou Xu, Yongsheng Tang, Gaohui Zhao, Jiangrong Yang, Lin Liu, Yan Sun, Yong Xie, Haining Wang and Youyong Zhu

Crop Diversity for Yield Increase

Ricardo Antonio Marenco and Ávila Maria Bastos Santos

Crop Rotation Reduces Weed Competition and Increases Chlorophyll Concentration and Rice Yield

Samuel Kilonzo Mutiga, Linnet S. Gohole and Elmada O. Auma

Agronomic Performance of Collards under Two Intercrops and Varying Nitrogen Application Levels as Assessed Using Land Equivalent Ratios

Gregory A. Jones and Jennifer L. Gillett

Intercropping with Sunflowers to Attract Beneficial Insects in Organic Agriculture

Cristina A. Faria, Felix L. Wäckers, Jeremy Pritchard, David A. Barrett, Ted C. J. Turlings

High Susceptibility of Bt Maize to Aphids Enhances the Performance of Parasitoids of Lepidopteran Pests

Andréia S. Guimaraes and José S. Mourao

Management of Plant Species for Controlling Pests by Peasant Farmers at Lagoa Seca, Paraíba State, Brazil: An Ethnoecological Approach

Julia Quartz

Creative Dissent with Technoscience in India: The Case of Non-Pesticidal Management (NPM) in Andra Pradesh

Jack Kloppenburg

Impending Dispossession, Enabling Repossession: Biological Open Source and the Recovery of Seed Sovereignty

Keith Aoki

"Free Seeds, not Free Beer": Participatory Plant Breeding, Open Source Seeds, and Acknowledging User Innovation in Agriculture

Derek Byerlee and Harvey Jesse Dubin

Crop Improvement in the CGIAR as a Global Success Story of Open Access and International Collaboration

Laxmi Prasad Pant and Helen Hambly-Odame

Creative Commons: Non-Proprietary Innovation Triangles in International Agricultural and Rural Development Partnerships