Cultivation and Comprehension: How genetic modification irreversibly alters the human engagement with nature

Genetic engineering is placed in the context of a history of transformations of the relations between 'cultivated nature' and 'naturally occurring nature'. It is argued that genetic modification is a bio-socio-economic process, producing new diversity within cultivated nature. Viewing bio- science and technology as 'socially embedded', it argues that different trajectories of their development have both the much trumpeted negative possibilities of ecological disaster and a positive potential of revolutionising both the culture of food and eco-sustainability.