Are Genetically Modified Plants Apollonian or Dionysian?

I have just finished reading the potato chapter and am wondering about what you guys might have gotten out of it. I think that Pollan’s idea is that monoculture represents Apollo and that farms that plant more than one variety of potato (like the organic farmer, Incan farms in the Andes, etc.) represent Dionysius (pp. 225-238 summarize this nicely). When I was reading, I began to try to apply this framework to the genetically modified potato that is the main character of the chapter. I tried to figure out if the modified potato is Apollonian or Dionysian. I really don’t know if this is allowed since this might be an incorrect usage of the dichotomy, but I figured that I would go with it and see if anyone had anything to say about it.

The basic premise of the chapter is that Pollan says that the potato is a symbol of the human desire for control. As he continues through the chapter, he introduces the topic of genetically modified plants and suggests that the biotechnologists helping create these new breeds are using their power to lessen the “wildness of these plants” (pp. 197). In this way, it seems like Pollan is saying that the greater amount of control that we obtain by modifying these plants makes the plants more Apollonian in nature. However, later on he emphasizes how little control over the modified plants we actually have and this seems to support a Dionysian stance. The procedures used to modify the plants are extremely haphazard; luck is a necessity when producing these new plants. Additionally, the genes that the scientists are splicing into the plants are often expressed in different ways, suggesting that the modification can make plants that can look and grow completely different from each other, even if they are still in the same species. This suggests, at least to me, a sense of wildness. These latter facts seem to show Dionysian features in the new genetically modified plants.

Additionally, the impact that the genetically modified plants have on the environment may also be seen as Apollonian or Dionysian. Initially, the modified plants have an advantage in the wild; they can grow without interference from pests. In this way the plants confer more order and control in nature to us humans and the plants are Apollonian. Interestingly, through cross breeding, weeds and other organisms can eventually adapt to the herbicides and pesticides produced by the plants and, in turn, regain the advantage. As a result, other organisms begin to have control over the modified plants which, in turn, return to the wild; this is characteristic of Dionysian ideas.

What do you guys think? Are genetically modified potatoes symbolic of the Apollonian ideal or the Dionysian ideal? Or are they in between (I don’t know if there is a middle ground in this schema, but I think I should include the option anyway)?