Traveling Seeds: Exporting Mexican Scientific Agriculture

• In Event: Science, Technology, and Medicine in Latin America: New Directions in Historical Research

Abstract

In the early 1960s, under the funding auspices of the Rockefeller Foundation and the guidance of American agronomists, Mexican campesinos began to plant new strains of wheat. These seeds eventually travel the world and helped launch the Green Revolution. What impact did this have in Mexico? In this paper I examine the rise of specialized seed banks, laboratories, and specialized export centers that transformed how wheat farming was/is practiced in Mexico today.

Author

• Gabriela M Soto Laveaga, University of California/Santa Barbara