PlantBot Genetics: Monsantra

The artist team of Wendy DesChene and Jeff Schmuki make up PlantBot Genetics Inc., a parody of the Monsanto Corporation and other Big Ag Firms who skillfully manipulate current food production and distribution systems.

Posing as a farmer at a leading Biotech Research Laboratory and using transgenic seeds from the Monsanto Corporation, genetically modified food plants are grafted onto remote controlled bases creating PlantBots that are released to engage unsuspecting audiences. Here, people are motivated to question their food, where it comes from, and where it may be going. PlantBots such as Monsantra asks communities to consider the food they eat and how it arrives to their plates. Coupling this poetry with current scientific knowledge on the environmental and social costs of bioengineered crops, Monsantra provokes investigations into current agricultural practices inspiring individuals to think more critically despite their connections to farming, economic level, education, or art interest.