Leave the Soybean, Take the Mustard: Considering the “Least of all Seeds”

“Will the future of India’s edible-oil culture be based on mustard and other edible oilseeds, or will it become part of the globalized monoculture of soybean…”

-Vandana Shiva
“Soy Imperialism and the Destruction of Local Food Cultures”

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Have you ever taken a drive through the Mississippi Delta? I’m thinking probably not, so allow me to fill in the gap. Imagine a road. The straightest road you’ve ever seen, stretching in opposite directions until it reaches the horizon. And what is there on either side of the road? Nothing but unbroken fields of green. Row after row of some small, bushy plant with broad leaves. As you drive down the road and look out at the fields, the rows seem to turn like the spokes of a giant green bicycle wheel. You continue on the road for hours, and this is all you ever see. Continue reading