Connecting Botany, Empire, and Reproductive Rights

By Cassandra Johnson-Villalobos When required reading becomes a personal favorite, it’s something worth sharing. Londa Shiebinger’s 2004 publication Plants and Empire: European Bioprospecting in the Atlantic World exposes European botany’s ties to colonial expansion. Schiebinger uses “bioprospecting”and “biopiracy” as monikers for English, Dutch, Spanish, and French environmental explorations and exploitations […]