All Over Creation (2003)
By Ruth Ozeki
Genetic engineering; Genetically modified food
A radical group protesting genetically engineered foods and a fractured family dedicated to organic seed production converge on an Idaho potato farm.
On a farm in Power County, Idaho, radical activists, corporate PR-representatives, and struggling farmers gather in conflict over the modern farming practice of genetically engineering agricultural products. The Fuller family has been farming in Idaho for several decades, but after Lloyd Fuller’s multiple heart attacks and Momoko Fuller’s creeping senility, their farm shrinks to a 5-acre plot on which they organically grow hundreds of varieties of fruits and vegetables; they sell the seeds they collect from these plants, along with newsletters advocating the organic, unengineered production of diverse species. Yumi Fuller, who has not been home since running away as a teenager, grudgingly returns to care for her parents. She arrives simultaneously with the “Seeds of Creation,” a group of activists who travel across the country, staging educational protests against genetically-engineered and transgenic foods in an ethanol-propelled van. After encountering one of Lloyd’s pamphlets imploring people to support the diversity of life through seeds, the Seeds decide to recruit him as their spokesperson. Their presence on the farm catalyzes the community, who view the Seeds as hippie wastrels intent on corrupting the community; agribusiness representatives infiltrate Power County in an effort to stir up the disgruntled citizens and deflect some of the protesters’ impact. The Seeds strike a major blow against NuLife potatoes – genetically engineered spuds that incorporate pesticides in every cell of the plant – during a protest on the Fullers’ farm, but ultimately this leads to tragedy as one of the Seeds is murdered by a rogue agribusiness operative disgusted with their methods.
Potato farming traditionally relies upon cloning as a means of improving stock: because potatoes are heterozygotic, farmers use pieces of potatoes – which when planted grow into a copies of the parents – instead of seeds to reproduce the desired traits. In this way, potatoes are manipulated in an organic method, versus what the Seeds identify as potentially harmful methods that involve incorporating pesticides within the plants themselves. While this seems an easy dichotomy – righteous activists versus evil agribusinesses – Ozeki also presents the side of the small agriculturalists, who farm engineered produce in order to keep their farms afloat in unpredictable and competitive markets. What make the companies that produce these engineered vegetables seem so insidious are the marketing techniques they employ and business strategies designed to keep the small agriculturalists in their thrall. Specifically, many of these companies patent the genetic programming of these plants, in addition to a “self-destruct” instruction in their embryos that force farmers to repurchase seeds year after year. The Seeds fear that with the overproduction of the engineered – and more profitable – products, nature’s plethora will be reduced to a small selection of potentially-harmful mutants. In the end, Ozeki’s novel promotes profusion of life – in the form of organically grown plants and Yumi’s hybrid family – and this variety seems inherently at odds with the production of corporately-controlled nature.
Evaluation: While Yumi’s relationship with her parents is interestingly textured, the more complex characters and plot aspects are directly tied to issues of genetic engineering. Beware: this novel is guaranteed to alter eating habits.
– Natalie Champ