In this paper, a novel genetically-inspired visual learning method is proposed. Given the training images, this general approach induces a sophisticated feature-based recognition system, by using cooperative coevolution and linear genetic programming for the procedural representation of feature extraction agents. The paper describes the learning algorithm and provides a firm rationale for its design. An extensive experimental evaluation, on the demanding real-world task of object recognition in synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery, shows the competitiveness of the proposed approach with human-designed recognition systems.