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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