Review of Abby Kinchy's "Seeds, science and struggle: the global politics of transgenic crops": Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2012.

Abstract

At a time when the politicization of science is increasingly becoming a concern around environmental issues like climate change or hydraulic fracturing, Science and Technology Studies scholar Abby Kinchy centers her thoughtful analysis of transgenic crops, “Seeds, Science, and Struggle,” around the somewhat antithetical concept of scientization. We often hear about how science is not being communicated or “believed in” by policy makers, but taking genetically engineered (GE) crops as a fascinating case study, Kinchy demonstrates an alternative picture of science and regulation. Scientism is when we treat decision making on a new technology as objective, value free, and best based on scientific evidence of quantifiable risks, while avoiding relevant ethical, cultural, and social dimensions. Because of scientization, we tend not to ask ourselves “What is the purpose or end goal of this technology?” or “What kind of world or type of agriculture do we want?” Instead, we want to know, “Is there sufficient evidence of biological or ecological harm from this particular agricultural technology?” Kinchy’s book, based in the fields of science and technology studies, sociology and anthropology, draws on ethnographic, multi-sited and historical methods to focus on two cases. She uses these cases, canola in Canada and maize in Mexico, to illuminate how scientization influences this public debate on GE crops in the global food system.