First the Seed: The Political Economy of Plant Biotechnology

4. Public science ascendant: plant breeding comes of age

4 Public science ascendant: plant breeding comes ofage There is a great deal of art to plant breeding, but more science. H. Nilsson-Ehle The eighteenth and nineteenth centuries saw the development of a plant genetic foundation on which American agriculture could successfully expand. This was accomplished principally through the appropriation of plant germplasm from other parts of the globe, a process that was underwritten and performed almost exclusively by the government. Varietal development consisted primarily of simple selection procedures at which farmers were no less adept than state experiment station or land-grant university personnel. But the turn ofthis century saw developments in science that would catalyze the transformation of plant breeding and establish the hegemony of the scientist, rather than the farmer, as the principal producer of new crop varieties. The rediscovery of Mendel's work in 1900 promised to put plant improvement on a much more sophisticated basis and make a "science" of what was until that time recognized as an "art." Yet it would be a quarter of a century before the promise of Mendelian genetics was substantially realized. The immediate demands made by farmers on the experiment stations created an environment in which opportunities to pursue basic scientific research were limited. Concerned by stagnating agricultural productivity between 1900 and 1930, non-farm business interests championed the cause of agricultural science and the rationalization of farm production. These efforts on the part of the business community resulted in the passage of a series of legislative acts creating financial and institutional space for basic agricultural research. Analysts ofthe agricultural features of the New Deal era have concentrated principally on the statesponsored social programs of the period (e.g., Saloutos 1982; Kirkendall 1982). Less well recognized is the extent to which the enhanced state capacity for intervention enjoyed by the federal government in the 1930S (Skocpol and Finegold 1982) was used to greatly strengthen agricultural science. This ultimately confounded the objectives of the social programs designed to 66 Public science ascendant stabilize the farm sector and provided private enterprise with a technical solution to the creation of space for capital accumulation in plant breeding. The promise of Mendel James "Tama Jim" Wilson succeeded Morton as Secretary of Agriculture in 1897, and the annual report for his initial year in office avoided any mention of the controversy that had so preoccupied his embattled predecessor . Morton's attempts to eliminate the free seed program were not without impact, however. He had argued that The reason and necessity for such distribution was removed when the experiment stations were established in the several States and Territories . Those stations are in charge of scientific men. They are, therefore , particularly well equipped for the trial, testing, and approval or condemnation of such new varieties as may be introduced from time to time. [USDA 189Sb:70] This was in large measure true. The plant introduction activities of the Patent Office and the USDA had successfully established a multiplicity of the world's botanical species as American crops. But continuous infusions of germplasm were needed as crops spread to new areas or as disease or pest problems rendered other varieties obsolete. The free seed program was no longer principally serving the purpose for which it had originally been initiated. Wilson chose to uncouple the political congressional distribution from the scientific collection, evaluation, and dissemination of exotic germplasm. He did this by establishing in 1898 a Section of Seed and Plant Introduction within the USDA whose function was to coordinate the department's plant exploration and introduction activities. A staffof professional botanists was employed who were able to recognize plant diseases and pests and assess the agronomic value ofvarieties. With N. E. Hansen's 1898 journey to Russia in search of hardy alfalfas and forage crops was launched the "golden age of plant hunting" that over the next quarter century would see some 48 expeditions scour the world for useful germplasm. Accessions were, and still are, recorded in the Inventory ofForeign Seeds and Plants. The first entry is a cabbage variety, "Bronka," collected near Moscow. In the inaugural issue of the inventory, O. F. Cook, Special Agent in Charge of Seed and Plant Introduction, observed: It should be repeated here that our efforts are in a line quite distinct from that of the Congressional seed distribution ... Importations are 68 First the seed accordingly made, in the great majority of cases, in experimental quantities only, for...