<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; "><b>MIT Seminar on Environmental and Agricultural History</b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; "><o:p><br></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; "><o:p> </o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; "><b>Jonathan Harwood</b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; "><b><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; ">Emeritus Professor of History of Science and Technology</span></font></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; "><b><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; ">University of Manchester </span></font></b></p><div><br></div><div><br></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; "><b>"Can Agricultural Biotechnology Alleviate Third World Poverty?</b></span></font></p><div><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align: center; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial"><b><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; ">Reflections on Green Revolutions Past and Present"</span></font></b></font></p><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt; "><span style="font-family: Helvetica; ">Despite its success in boosting cereal yields, the “Green Revolution” in Latin America and Asia has not made much impact upon rural poverty. Champions of genetic modification now argue that the “gene revolution” can produce plant varieties that will improve the prospects of poor farmers in the developing world. Although the new biotechnology does offer possible advantages to smallholders, his potential is unlikely to be realized because biotech research and development are concentrated in the private sector. Case studies of Germany and Japan ca. 1900 demonstrate that public-sector breeding can effectively serve resource-poor small farmers, as does recent Chinese work in biotechnology. Unless the World Bank, USAID and other major donors are prepared to fund public-sector agricultural research in the developing world much more generously than in recent decades, the “gene revolution” is unlikely to be more successful than its predecessors in alleviating rural poverty.<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align: center; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; "><b>Friday April 8, 2011</b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align: center; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial"><b>2:30 to 4:30 pm</b></font><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial"><b><o:p></o:p></b></font></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align: center; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial"><b>Building E51 Room 095</b></font><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial"><b><o:p></o:p></b></font></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align: center; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial"><b>Corner of Wadsworth and Amherst Streets, Cambridge</b></font></p></div></body></html>