Neo-Agro-Colonialism, Control over Life, and Imposed Spatio-Temporalities

Abstract

The control over what Dillon and Lobo-Guerrero (2008) conceptualise as ‘pluripotent’ life has become an essential factor of capitalist agriculture; this occurs through the regulation of strategic genetic resources. We recognise this course as part of a larger project of neo-agro-colonialism, which takes place by controlling both biotechnology and territories as an expression of a fungible power, turning geopolitics into biopolitics and vice-versa. While assessing the power relations and manipulation of spatio-temporalities in the process of life fabrication, we discuss the mechanisms of control over ‘pluripotent’ life – genetically modified seeds and biopiracy through patentisation of traditional knowledges – which turns life into a commodified good. This is to say that the instrumental use of life fabrication within the rationale of globalised capital (re)creates post-colonial temporalities that legitimise (re)new(ed) colonial ties. We ascertain that it is the manipulation of life’s temporality that allows capital to be (re)produced in the agricultural context of the molecular age.

Key words
Neo-Agro-Colonialism; Temporalities; Biopolitics; Biotechnology; ‘Pluripotent’ Life; Agriculture; Seeds