The organization and culture of agricultural R&D is insufficiently attentive to a wide range of social, environmental, legal and ethical issues that are part of any significant technological innovation. Biotechnology provides an important case study and object lesson for some of the questions that we should be debating with respect to the ecological meaning of agriculture, and the impact of technical change on our social institutions. Scientists, educators and administrators must institutionalize continuous critical reflection on their activities, and they must find some way to make that reflection effective in shaping the agenda for research and the deployment of technology