Si kar ješ?? Res??

"The rural sociologist Jack Kloppenburg has given a social-constructivist analysis of the development of hybrid maize. The `economic sterility' of the miracle seeds, according to Kloppenburg, was not merely an accidental side effect of a breeding strategy primarily oriented towards the goal of increasing yields. In fact,hybridisation was not the only road leading to higher yields. In 1919, an alternative to the hybridisation strategy favoured by East and Jones had been proposed by Hayes and Garber:`recurrent selection', that is, a continuous alternation between inbreeding and crossbreeding. This breeding strategy was characterised by the fact that it would not lead to `economically sterile'varieties. That, however, was considered to be a fatal flaw. Most American breeding scientists, first of all East and Jones, sympathised with commercial breeders and their lack of opportunities to commercially exploit improved varieties, simply because the farmer could always take seed from his own harvest after purchasing the improved cultivars. The strategy of hybridisation was intended to end the latter `abuse'. To guarantee the profitability of the private seed sector,therefore, breeding scientists in the public sector (!) chose the hybridisation strategy for their development work. Perhaps it was more than a coincidence that the father of the president of the Hi-Bred Corn Company (a precursor of seed giant Pioneer Hi-Bred) - Henry C. Wallace - was at that time Secretary of Agriculture."

from:
FIVE VIEWS ON TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT:
IMPLICATIONS FOR DEMOCRATIC CONTROL AND ETHICAL
ASSESSMENT
Henk van den Belt
Applied Philosophy Group
Wageningen University and Research Centre