Seminar on Environmental and Agricultural History (SEAH)

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Monsanto, a chemical company started in St. Louis in 1901, survived its polluted past to become the largest seed seller on the planet and a designer of the food system we all now depend on. Based on Bart Elmore’s new book, SEED MONEY: MONSANTO’S PAST AND OUR FOOD FUTURE (W. W. Norton, 2021), this talk will focus on what’s happened in farm country over the past twenty-five years since Monsanto introduced the first genetically engineered Roundup Ready seeds that were designed to enable commodity crops to tolerate heavy spraying of Monsanto’s signature herbicide Roundup. As we’ll see, the food future Monsanto sold farmers looks a lot like the past.

This event is part of the MIT Seminar on Environmental and Agricultural History sponsored by the History Faculty and the Program in Science, Technology and Society.

For more information contact kalopes@mit.edu