Plant science is fundamental to the global food economy of the twentieth century. Knowledge about the ecology of crops, plant species or the physiology and DNA of individual plants have all affected the amount and quality of food produced all over the world. A key role is played by plant breeding and genetics. Increasingly, throughout the twentieth century, genetic composition was considered the blueprint for a plant’s characteristics. This opened the door for a ‘design perspective’ on biology and agriculture. Desired features - whether high yield, disease resistance or taste - could be introduced by changing the plant’s genetic composition. As a result, the production and characteristics of food crops - most prominently wheat, rice and maize - have changed significantly.

Studies in the history and sociology of biology and agricultural science have made clear that the contribution of science to food production, in individual countries and on the international level, was neither a straightforward application of existing knowledge nor an uncontested activity. Likewise, studies in the history of agriculture as well as economic and social-political analyses of agrarian production have shown that the impact of science-based plant improvement was uneven across countries and regions, with differential effects upon farmers, traders and consumers. While this picture holds true for most places in general terms, more detailed accounts of the role of plant science in food security are hardly available for certain countries, institutional settings or historical periods. This session aims, therefore, to fill in some of these gaps but also to provide insight into new and as yet unexplored terrain in this area.

The papers in these sessions should provide a good overview of the various issues under study and the diversity of approaches being used, as well as covering a range of geographical and cultural settings across the twentieth century.