My inquiry of
how a technology like genetically modified seeds has come to be "silently
popular" parallel my views of the Winner article “Do Artifacts Have
Politics”. Winner speaks of Robert Moses and the politics he purposely
merged into the specifications of the overpasses in New York between the 1920s
and 1970s “to achieve a particular social effect” (23). Buses cannot
fit under the overpasses and were a measure to limit the visitation to Jones
Beach by racial minorities and lower income groups. The social effect of
technology creates changes, but sometimes the effect can become so much apart
of everyday life it might more easily go unnoticed. I believe that food
is so essential to everyday life; the politics of how and where the food came
from is not given a lot of thought. This seems counterintuitive; one
would think that something that is central to everyday life would receive a lot
of attention and thought. In talking to others, including my fellow
classmates, many people are unaware of exactly where their food comes
from. I know I previously was. Corn, cotton, and soybeans come from
a farm. It does not seem like there is much more to know than that.
How could something as simple as agriculture have profound politics.
For starters, I suggest looking at the
Venn Diagram below.