Seeding Empire: American Philanthrocapital and the Roots of the Green Revolution in Africa

• In Event: Book Talks II

Abstract

In Seeding Empire, Aaron Eddens rewrites an enduring story about the past—and future—of global agriculture. Eddens connects today’s efforts to cultivate a “Green Revolution in Africa” to a history of American projects that introduced capitalist agriculture along agrarian frontiers across the Global South. Expansive in scope, Seeding Empire draws on archival records of the earliest Green Revolution projects in Mexico in the 1940s and 1950s and interviews at development institutions and agribusinesses working to deliver genetically modified crops to millions of small-scale farmers across Africa. Taking us from the offices of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to the halls of the world’s largest agricultural biotechnology companies to field trials of hybrid maize in Kenya, Eddens shows how the Green Revolution fails to address global inequalities of privilege and vulnerability. Eradicating global hunger in an era of climate crisis, Seeding Empire insists, demands thinking beyond the Green Revolution.

Author

• Aaron Eddens, Grand Valley State University