We’re opening up a two-part conversation around one of the most controversial business stories of the modern era. This first part focuses on how innovation, when paired with unchecked power, can quietly reshape entire industries and lives.

We dig into how genetically engineered crops were introduced in the 1990s and why farmers were forced into buying new seeds year after year. We talk about patent enforcement, lawsuits, and a business model that created dependency rather than choice. Rising costs, mounting debt, and devastating human consequences became part of the landscape, changing how the world viewed corporate responsibility in agriculture.

We explore how public perception shifted, from celebrating scientific progress to questioning the ethics behind it. This isn’t just about seeds or chemicals. It’s about power, profit, and who carries the weight when the system is designed to protect the top.

This is part one of two. The groundwork. The context. The story before the consequences fully unfold.

About Simon and Danielle:

Simon and Danielle are both business owners, based in the East Midlands, who met through mutual business contacts and who share a love of all things business.

Simon runs Skylight Media – Award-winning experts in Website Design, E-commerce & Marketing running since 2003.

Danielle runs Goldspun Support – a multi-faceted support service for fractional directors and small business owners across the globe, running since 2009.

Since they first met Simon and Danielle have spent a ridiculous amount of time talking about the subjects that interest them – usually over a drink in the pub – and they decided that now was the time to bring these conversations to a wider audience and invite them to join the chat.

Both Simon and Danielle are successful business owners in their own rights with big plans for the future but will never lose their love of talking all things business… and the pub.