Disney's EPCOT Center debuted in 1984, the conception of Walt Disney's Experimental Prototype Community Of Tomorrow. It holds two separate sections, the World Showcase, and Future World. EPCOT's main goal was to provide a place where families could come to be informed and entertained. They could catch a glance of different cultures in the World Showcase, and see the technologies of tomorrow in Future Land.

In Future Land is a Pavilion dedicated to agriculture, The Land Pavilion. One of the main attractions is the ride Living With The Land. Living With The Land hosts a 2-acre lab with intensive food crop production and research capabilities. This facility, presented by Nestle, USA, offers guests a fifteen minute ride through the history of agriculture, a series of diverse simulated biomes, and experimental greenhouses "showcasing agricultural research and production systems that emphasize sustainable agriculture" (Agricultural Research, July, 1996).

Lexie McKently, manager of the Biotechnology program at The Land, says "Our main objective here is to communicate the science of agriculture...by showing various tools- such as biotechnology..." Most recently lab has been working on transforming the genetic makeup of peaches so the fruit can ripen on the tree longer but stay firm enough to maintain itself through shipping. Something they claim "would make for a juicier, better tasting peach in the produce bin" by delaying ripening and increasing shelf life. Horticulturist John Horts works in the glass encased lab with the tissue-cultured peaches, that every guest sails past on their boat ride through Disney's presentation of the history and future of farming. Horts explains his work, saying "With a gene gun, we'll fire gold particles that are coated with DNA containing the gene into the shoot tips of several different peach varieties."

One key condition in The Land is how every single aspect of the different biomes, and historical replications, is simulated to an ultra-real extent. From the bark on the trees to the humidity in the air every single part of each mini-ecosphere, and section of history is a ultra-real Disney creation. On a different level simulation also takes place in the labs with genetic engineering; mapping the gene sequence of the peanut plant to produce a lower fat peanut. They claim to be "working to improve and protect plants by reworking their very genes" (Discover, December 1994).

What aspects of history has Disney left out, is a question we are left to ponder. Along with the type of future they are presenting as ideal; is it a future without soil, human farm laborers, and "natural" plants as they project it to be? Does an ultra-real 15 minute boat ride represent the complexities of agriculture today, with heavy debates over labor, genetically engineered food, and the family farm becoming obsolete?

The ride presents an incredible insight to some of the most high-tech farming practices today, and condenses the changes of farming in the past. The lab is a serious research facility which is working on changing the makeup of what we eat, intended for our betterment.

However one is left to think over the way this information is presented, and the nature of simulation in a highly simulated environment. The peach you eat tomorrow may be the product of a tissue sample, with an inverted gene code, ripe, fresh and ready for eating.

SOURCES:

Stanley, Doris. U.S. Department of Agricultural Research, 1996. V.44-7. p. 20.

"The surprise Behind the Rides; EPCOT '94 at Walt Disney World, Florida; special advertising section. Discover Magazine, September, 1994. V.15-9. p. 44