Agricultural Biotechnology Reconsidered (Abstract)

Dr. Noah Zerbe
Associate Professor
Department of Government & Politics
Humboldt State University
One Harpst Street
Arcata, CA 95521

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Agricultural Biotechnology Reconsidered: Western Narratives and African Alternatives. (Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 2005).

Abstract

Since the 1980s, advances in biotechnology have captured the popular imagination. Mainstream accounts of the new technology have emphasized both the potential dangers and the possible benefits. The rise of commercial biotechnology has generated extensive debate between its advocates-for whom recent innovations will lead to cures for nearly every disease known to humanity while simultaneously curing hunger, malnutrition, and poverty-and its critics, who warn that biotechnology will create new environmental dilemmas and ultimately prove unable to deliver any of the benefits its advocates claim. Both positions, however, are overstated. Biotechnology is unlikely to prove either as beneficial or as dangerous as either its advocates or critics contend. Instead, biotechnology is a tool that, as like any other, reflects the social conditions of its production. In this book, I seek to understand the nature of those conditions, examining in particular the position of science and technology in capitalism. I outline the contours of commercial biotechnology in the context of global capitalism. Beginning from the premise that technology is socially mediated, reflecting the conditions of its development and production, I explore the way in which biotechnology has developed as a commercial enterprise in the United States, transitioning from its early beginnings as a field of academic research into a major focus of American high technology and competitive advantage. I explore the impact that (now globalized) biotechnology has on Southern Africa. Finally, I analyze the development of other models of agricultural research and production-Zimbabwe's system of maize research and the African Model Law-which highlight important alternatives to the capital-intensive farming and research practices of the United States.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	iv
List of Figures and Tables	vi
Abbreviations and Acronyms	vii

Chapter 1: Introduction: Globalization, Technology, and Development	1
Technology and Capitalism	4
Technology and Globalization	15
Inclusion and Exclusion: Africa in the Global Political Economy	17
Why Biotechnology?	21
Why Zimbabwe?	27

Chapter 2: Building Life? Political and Economic Foundations of Biotechnology
Introduction	36
The Theory and Technology of Biotechnology	39
Biotechnology Risk and Regulation	42
Intellectual Property and Biotechnology	50
Commercial Interest in Biotechnology	58
Conclusion	66

Chapter 3: Globalization and Biotechnology
Introduction	68
International Agreements	70
Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights	73
TRIPs and the Worldwide Expansion of the Biotech Industry	79
Convention on Biological Diversity	86
TRIPs and CBD: Divergent Perspectives or Common Framework?	90
Conclusion	101

Chapter 4: New Messiah or False Prophet? Biotechnology and Agricultural Production in Southern Africa
Introduction	103
Current Status of Commercial Agrobiotechnology	105
Promise and Peril of Agricultural Biotechnology in Southern Africa	110
Agricultural Research and the Nature of the Seed	119
Biotechnology and Increasing Inequality	130
Biodiversity and Biotechnology	142
Conclusion	147

Chapter 5: Zimbabwe’s Colonial Inheritance
Introduction	149
Colonial Land and Labor Policy	152
The Rise of Colonial Agriculture	162
Displacement and Destruction of Indigenous Agriculture	167
Discriminatory Market Access	169
Maize Seed Research in Colonial Rhodesia	173
Conclusion	186

Chapter 6: Zimbabwe’s Alternative
Introduction	188
The Land Question Under Decolonization	189
Growth with Equity	205
Postindependence Seed Networks	229
The Development of Zimbabwe’s Maize Seed Network	215
Neoliberal Structural Adjustment, Social Policy, and the Seed Industry	219
Zimbabwe’s Seed Industry After ESAP	225
TRIPs and the Zimbabwean Seed Industry	231
Conclusion	235

Chapter 7: Conclusion: Popular Versus Liberal Democracy in the Governance of Science
Summary	238
Lessons from the Research	247
The African Model Law	255
Expanding the African Position	274

Bibliography
Primary Sources	278
Secondary Sources	281
Interviews	310