ABSTRACT

From the ‘Green Revolution’ to the ‘Gene Revolution’, the ultimate aim of promoting new technologies on a colossal scale is to make agricultural inputs and outputs essential commodities, create the market-dependent agri-food system, and bring all farming operations into the capitalist fold. There is a plethora of literature on the capitalist strategies of the diffusion of new agricultural technologies, but little emphasis is placed on the motives and modus operandi of philanthropic organizations and their relationship with the state and corporate forces in promoting new seeds and agro-chemicals. This article critically examines the continuity of hegemonic and dispossessive strategies of philanthropic organizations (such as the Rockefeller Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation) in establishing the philanthropic-corporate-state complex to control and exploit primary agricultural producers and their genetic wealth across the globe.