Not By Bread Alone

In 1983, at the age of 86, Naomi Mitchison published Not By Bread Alone. Sixty years had passed since the publication of her first novel, The Conquered. As a lifelong advocate of socialism and feminism, Mitchison draws upon the speculative imaginary in Not By Bread Alone to put forward and strategise political concerns which remain uncomfortably pertinent.

The narrative transports the reader to a now not-so-distant future, where a powerful multinational corporation is close to producing free food for the entire world. It follows a group of scientists spread across continents, working on early GMOs. Their research is funded by the PAX corporation which (like its real-world counterpart) represents the global economic hegemony. Whilst their 'Freefood' policy may appear initially beneficial, the genetically modified crops soon start to present major problems. The scientists must learn from the people of Murngin, who reject PAX's Freefood and instead uphold a symbiotic connection to their land, before it is too late.

Mitchison characterised the disastrous consequences of something going wrong with a global single-strain crop supply not as science fiction but as something that might really happen. In 1983, when the novel was first published, the world succeeded in producing the first genetically modified plant but it would be decades before the production of GM crops became as widespread as envisioned in the novel. It remains to be seen whether humankind is yet prepared to heed Naomi Mitchison's warnings.