Abstract
Seeds of domesticated plants are a literature, a hard drive and a coded record of past information. Historically speaking, breeding is a special kind of alteration that has made domesticated plants among the most ancient of technical products. In this process of domesticating plants, kinship can be profoundly disrupted and transformed into intellectual property, only to escape, and revert to illicit relationships that are formed in the same agricultural fields that are attempting to tame them. Attention has turned in some quarters to challenging the notions of subjectivity of traditionally ignored subjects. In this paper I want to bring domesticated vegetables to the table. Domesticated plants created by selectionist plant breeding are testimonies to the benefits of cross-species cooperation that have been occurring for generations. Exploring the status of plants as subjects suggests that the controversies surrounding breeding practices need to be reconsidered.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
Joe is a plant breeder and member of the technical staff at a leading US land-grant university. The comments cited here are taken from a larger qualitative case study of a participatory plant breeding project that sought to breed varieties for the organic and sustainable farming sector.
References
Beinart, W. and Middleton, K. (2004) Plant transfers in historical perspective: A review article. Environment and History 10: 3–29.
Boutin, C., Baril, A. and Martin, P.A. (2008) Plant diversity in crop fields and woody hedgerows of organic and conventional farms in contrasting landscapes. Agriculture Ecosystems & Environment 123: 185–193.
Bowker, G. and Leigh Star, S. (2002) Sorting Things Out: Classification and Its Consequences. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
Braidotti, R. (2006) Posthuman, all too human: Towards a new process ontology. Theory, Culture & Society 23 (7–8): 197–208.
Budiansky, S. (1992) The Covenant of the Wild: Why Animals Choose Domestication. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Callon, M. (1999) Some elements of a sociology of translation: Domestication of the scallops and the fishermen of St Brieuc Bay. In: M. Biagioli (ed.) The Science Studies Reader. New York: Routledge, pp. 67–83.
Despret, V. (2008) The becomings of subjectivity in animals worlds. Subjectivity 23: 123–139.
Diamond, J. (1997) Guns, Germs and Steel. New York: Norton Press.
Evans, L. (1993) Crop Evolution, Adaptation and Yield. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Fussell, B. (1992) The Story of Corn. New York: North Point Press.
Haraway, D. (1991) Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature. London: Free Association Books.
Haraway, D. (1997) Modest Witness@Second Millennium. FemaleMan Meets OncoMouse: Feminism and Technoscience. New York: Routledge.
Haraway, D. (1999) Situated knowledges: The science question in feminism and the privilege of partial perspective. In: M. Biagioli (ed.) The Science Studies Reader. New York: Routledge, pp. 172–188.
Haraway, D. (2003) The Companion Species Manifesto: Dogs, People, and Significant Otherness. Chicago, IL: Prickly Paradigm Press.
Hinchliffe, S., Kearnes, M.B., Degen, M. and Whatmore, S. (2005) Urban wild things: A cosmopolitical experiment. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 23 (5): 643–658.
Hobhouse, H. (1985) Seeds of Change. New York: Harper and Row.
Jain, H. and Kharkwal, M. (eds.) (2004) Plant Breeding: Mendelian to Molecular Approaches. Boston, MA; Dordrecht, the Netherlands; London: Kluwer Academic Publishers; Narosa Publishing House.
Joshi, J. et al (2001) Local adaptation enhances performance of common plant species. Ecology Letters 4: 36–544.
Keller, E.F. (1983) A Feeling for the Organism: The Life and Work of Barbara McClintock. New York: W.H. Freeman and Co.
Latour, B. (1999) Give me a laboratory and I will raise the world. In: M. Biagioli (ed.) The Science Studies Reader. New York: Routledge, pp. 258–275.
Lawn, C. (2009) Fedco seed catalog, www.fedcoseeds.com.
Mayo, O. (1987) The Theory of Plant Breeding. Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press.
Mintz, S. (1986) Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in the Modern World. New York: Penguin Books.
Morris, M. and Bellon, M. (2004) Plant breeding research: Opportunities and challenges for the international crop improvement system. Euphytica 136: 21–35.
Parlevliet, J. (2007) How to maintain improved cultivars. Euphytica 153: 353–362.
Pepperberg, I. (1995) Studies to Determine the Intelligence of African Grey Parrots. Proceedings of the International Aviculturists Society; 11–15, January, available online, http://www.funnyfarmexotics.com.IAS/grey-al.htm.
Pepperberg, I. (2008) Alex & Me: How a Scientist and a Parrot Uncovered a Hidden World of Animal Intelligence – and Formed a Deep Bond in the Process. New York: Collins.
Pollan, M. (2001) The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World. New York: Random House.
Smith, B. (1995) The Emergence of Agriculture. New York: Scientific American Library.
Stoskopf, N. (1993) Plant Breeding: Theory and Practice. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
Strachan, J. (1992) Plant variety protection: An alternative to patents, http://www.nal.usda.gov/pgdic/Probe/v2n2/plant.html.
Trut, L. (1999) Early canid domestication: The farm-fox experiment. American Scientist 87 (2): 160–170.
Van Dooren, T. (2008) Terminated seed: Death, proprietary kinship and the production of (bio)wealth. Science as Culture 16 (1): 71–94.
Vavilov, N. (1992) Origin and Geography of Cultivated Plants. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Whatmore, S. and Thorne, L. (1998) Wild(er)ness: Reconfiguring the geographies of wildlife. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 23 (4): 435–454.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Mendum, R. Subjectivity and plant domestication: Decoding the agency of vegetable food crops. Subjectivity 28, 316–333 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1057/sub.2009.15
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/sub.2009.15