For over a decade now, environmental historian Bart Elmore has studied the history of one of the largest seed sellers in the world: Monsanto. This St. Louis company, which German firm Bayer bought in 2018, launched a genetic engineering revolution in agriculture over 25 years ago, introducing the first Roundup Ready crops in 1996 that could tolerate Monsanto’s signature herbicide Roundup. We now have data that can help us see the profits and pitfalls associated with that revolution and to think more fully about how Monsanto’s past will shape the future of the food we eat.
This event is free and open to the public. RSVPs via the link above are requested, but not required to attend. Seating will be on a first come, first served basis.
Bart Elmore is a professor of environmental history and a core faculty member of the Sustainability Institute at The Ohio State University. His work focuses on the ecological footprint of large multinational firms. He is the author of the award-winning book Citizen Coke: The Making of Coca-Cola Capitalism (W. W. Norton, 2015), a global environmental history of the world’s biggest soft drink brand from his home town. From 2016 to 2018 he was a Carnegie Fellow and Eric and Wendy Schmidt Fellow at the New America Foundation in Washington, D.C. He published his second book, Seed Money: Monsanto’s Past and the Future of Food (W. W. Norton, 2021) in October 2021. And he just completed a third project, Country Capitalism: How Corporations from the American South Remade Our Economy and the Planet (Ferris and Ferris, 2023), which came out in May 2023. He is also a recipient of the 2022 Dan David Prize, the largest history prize in the world.
Learn more about Dr. Elmore's work from the College of Arts and Sciences' Voices of Excellence podcast.
Science Sundays is a free lecture series open to the public that provides a wide range of current and emerging topics and issues in science that touch our everyday lives. Speakers are experts in their fields from on campus and around the world with experience in making their topics interesting and accessible for audiences of all ages, with or without a science background.
Each lecture is followed by a free, informal reception from 4-5 p.m. at the Ohio Staters Traditions Room in the Ohio Union.
If you have questions about accessibility or wish to request an accommodation for a disability please contact John Beacom (beacom.7@osu.edu; 614-247-8102). With advance notice of two weeks, we can generally provide seamless access.
