{"product_id":"corporate-crops","title":"Corporate Crops","description":"\u003cp\u003eBiotechnology crop production area increased from 1.7 million hectares to 148 million hectares worldwide between 1996 to 2010. While genetically modified food is a contentious issue, the debates are usually limited to health and environmental concerns, ignoring the broader questions of social control that arise when food production methods become corporate-owned intellectual property. Drawing on legal documents and dozens of interviews with farmers and other stakeholders, \u003ci\u003eCorporate Crops\u003c\/i\u003e covers four case studies based around litigation between biotechnology corporations and farmers. Pechlaner investigates the extent to which the proprietary aspects of biotechnologies—from patents on seeds to a plethora of new rules and contractual obligations associated with the technologies—are reorganizing crop production.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe lawsuits include patent infringement litigation launched by Monsanto against a Saskatchewan canola farmer who, in turn, claimed his crops had been involuntarily contaminated by the company’s GM technology; a class action application by two Saskatchewan organic canola farmers launched against Monsanto and Aventis (later Bayer) for the loss of their organic market due to contamination with GMOs; and two cases in Mississippi in which Monsanto sued farmers for saving seeds containing its patented GM technology. Pechlaner argues that well-funded corporate lawyers have a decided advantage over independent farmers in the courts and in creating new forms of power and control in agricultural production. \u003ci\u003eCorporate Crops\u003c\/i\u003e demonstrates the effects of this intersection between the courts and the fields where profits, not just a food supply, are reaped.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"By Gabriela Pechlaner","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53614258389372,"sku":"9780292756878","price":23.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0251\/4980\/0541\/files\/9780292756878.jpg?v=1741268178","url":"https:\/\/combined-academic.myshopify.com\/products\/corporate-crops","provider":"Combined Academic Publishers - Mare Nostrum Group","version":"1.0","type":"link"}