"Food Fights: The Political Economy of Nature, Resources and the Body under Empire.".

Biotechnology represents a strategic resource for both the military and corporate sectors of the U.S. empire. While the history of biotechnology's dual-use functions remain obscured by scholarship which focuses on either biological weapons or on the biotechnology industry, this paper shows how the two are intertwined. I argue that the agricultural biotechnology's research and development interests in genetically engineered food developed out of America's Weapons Program after President Nixon converted it into the Biological Research Program. To understand this conversion process, this paper examines a state-led industrial strategy surrounding pesticides research as a case study. Through historical analysis and archival evidence, this paper details these developments between 1969-1971. The purpose in exploring the origins of the agricultural biotechnology industry is to shed light on the political economy of food. In so doing, it has implications for a broader understanding of contemporary debates over international intellectual property rights and world food security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]