ABSTRACT
Technological progress has been a defining characteristic of agriculture since human beings first moved beyond the hunter-gatherer stage and began to cultivate the means for their subsistence. Toward the end of the twentieth century, there began the latest in a series of revolutions in agricultural technology that has involved the emergence of genetically modified organisms. Agriculture is among the most debated and contentious areas engaged by the multilateral trading system. At the center of the debate over agricultural biotech is the question of intellectual property rights. The chapter outlines the juridical and ideological basis for property rights in living organisms as it has developed both in the United States and in the world as a whole over the course of the twentieth century, particularly in the post–World War II period—the period of the ascendency and relative decline of US hegemony in the world capitalist system and the emergence of an incipient global state.
