Genetic fallout in bio-cultural landscapes: Molecular imperialism and the cultural politics of (not) seeing transgenes in Mexico

Christophe Bonneuil (1) , Jean Foyer (2) , Brian Wynne (3)

1 CAK-CRHST - Centre Alexandre Koyré - Centre de Recherche en Histoire des Sciences et des Techniques
2 ISCC - Institut des Sciences de la Communication du CNRS
3 Lancaster University

This article explores the trajectory of the global controversy over the introgression (or not) of transgenes from genetically modified maize into Mexican indigenous maize landraces. While a plurality of knowledge-making processes were deployed to render transgenes visible or invisible, we analyze how a particular in-vitro based DNA-centred knowledge came to marginalize other forms of knowledge, thus obscuring other bio-cultural dimensions key to the understanding of gene flow and of maize diversity. We show that dominant molecular norms of proof and standards of detection, which co-developed with the world of industrial monocropping and gene patenting, discarded and externalized non-compliant actors (i.e. complex maize genomes, human dimensions of gene flow). Operating in the name of high-science, they hence obscured the complex biological and cultural processes that maintain crop diversity and enacted a cultural-political domination over the world of Mexican landraces and indigenous communities.

Keywords: Epistemic cultures; co-production; legibility-illegibility; normalization; lab-field relations; GMOs; maize biocultures; Mexico's indigenous landraces

Domains: History, Philosophy and Sociology of Sciences

Christophe Bonneuil, Jean Foyer, Brian Wynne. Genetic fallout in bio-cultural landscapes: Molecular imperialism and the cultural politics of (not) seeing transgenes in Mexico. Social Studies of Science, 2014, 44 (6), pp.901-929. ⟨10.1177/0306312714548258⟩. ⟨hal-02865725⟩