[E&E seminars] MIT Seminar on Environmental and Agricultural History 4-8-2011

[Margo Collett]

MIT Seminar on Environmental and Agricultural History



 Jonathan Harwood

Emeritus Professor of History of Science and Technology

University of Manchester 



"Can Agricultural Biotechnology Alleviate Third World Poverty?

Reflections on Green Revolutions Past and Present"

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.

Friday April 8, 2011

2:30 to 4:30 pm

Building E51 Room 095

Corner of Wadsworth and Amherst Streets, Cambridge
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