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Paper short abstract

We repurpose a found object – the potato varieties booklet – to play with the governance of plant synthetic biology. What values do we want to embed in a synthetic potato? What traits will it carry, and what will it taste like? What worlds will it help grow? What shouldn’t it do?

Paper long abstract

“Dominic Dream is a maincrop all-rounder with 30% reduction in water usage compared to market leader Maris Piper. Produces a high number of large oval-shaped tubers with creamy skin and floury texture. Ideal roasters. Resistant to G. rostochiensis and late blight. Ideal for farmers working intensively/extensively/subsistence [delete as appropriate]. Open-source; commercially available via SustainablyAbundant® as true seed with restitution guarantee in case of failure (t+c’s apply). A forward-thinking variety securing food futures, catalysed by Britain’s Advanced Research and Invention Agency to benefit all.”

We are STS researchers working within ARIA Synthetic Plants Programme, researching its social and political dimensions. Here we share an ongoing experiment in collaborative, situated governance. The excerpt above introduces a speculative varieties booklet through one hypothetical variety. Real varieties booklets are a ubiquitous currency of potato fairs and industry events: marketing tools, but also codifications of plant breeding’s trade-offs. Could they also serve as an epistemic bridge between the world of potato breeders and synthetic biologists working on potatoes — making visible not only technical decisions around trait choice, but the values and world-building choices woven into technology? If so, what trade-offs should be foregrounded, and who should decide? If the world is to have a synthetic potato, what should it look like and taste like? What constraints does the potato itself bring? And what worlds might it help grow? Our hope is that ‘thinking with varieties booklets’ might be an opportunity to playfully broach the complexity of designing with organisms in more-than-human societies.