The Greenhouse is a meeting place for students and researchers interested in the history and sociology of plants, food, agriculture and environment to explore how science and technology shape what we grow and eat. The regular programme of papers and discussions is curated in conjunction with the project From Collection to Cultivation, which is funded by the Wellcome Trust.
The reading group is open to all. We meet fortnightly on Mondays, 2pm–3pm, in the HPS Board Room to discuss papers or presentations. Most meetings will be hybrid, with an option to participate via Zoom. Write to hps-cultivation@lists.cam.ac.uk to subscribe.
Organised by Helen Anne Curry.
Easter Term 2023
8 May: Globalizing the Soybean
Chapter 4 ('Americanizing Soy') from Ines Prodöhl, Globalizing the Soybean: Fat, Feed, and Sometimes Food, c. 1900–1950 (Routledge, 2023)
22 May: Seeds and Profit
Part 3 ('Remaking Agrarian Capitalism') from Aniket Aga, Genetically Modified Democracy: Transgenic Crops in Contemporary India (Yale, 2021)
5 June: Radical Botanical Futures
Chapter 7 ('Becoming Plant Nonetheless') from Natania Meeker and Antónia Szabari, Radical Botany: Plants and Speculative Fiction (Fordham, 2019)