United States
£ GBP
Explores why four different countries (USA, India, Britain, and Mexico) each sought to develop high yielding wheat production. National security concerns and management of foreign exchange were prime motivators of the new technologies, a relationship that has not been previously developed in studies of agricultural modernization. Future reform efforts in agriculture will be affected by this history.
"John H. Perkins has written an important book on the development of wheat breeding in the United States, Great Britain, India and Mexico during the 20th century. He analyzes the development of scientific knowledge about breeding techniques along with efforts to increase agricultural production within each country itself. His original goal was 'to understand the plant-breeding science behind high-yielding varieties of wheat' in these four nations. In the course of his research, however, he discovered that science during this period was intertwined with domestic and international policy issues, noting especially 'the immense importance of agriculture in general and the cereal crops in particular to the shape of human culture and the security of nations'. This realization is crucial to a full understanding of the role and place of science in the world i
