April 22, 2008

"It's Not the Price That Causes Hunger"

International Herald Tribune

By Robert Paarlberg, Research Fellow, Science, Technology and Globalization

"Africa's food crisis grows primarily out of the low productivity, year in and year out, of the 60 percent of all Africans who plant crops and graze animals for a living. The average African smallholder farmer is a woman who has no improved seeds, no nitrogen fertilizers, no irrigation and no veterinary medicine for her animals. Her crop yields are only one third as high as in the developing countries of Asia, and her average income is only $1 a day."

February 29, 2008

"Africa's Organic Farms"

International Herald Tribune

By Robert Paarlberg, Research Fellow, Science, Technology and Globalization

"In Europe, meanwhile, some official donors and nongovernmental agencies are working to block farm modernization in Africa. Despite Africa's worsening soil nutrient deficits, European donors like to promote costly organic farming techniques as the alternative to chemical fertilizer use. This is not how European farmers escaped poverty....European governments and NGOs also promote regulatory systems that block the use of genetically engineered crops, including crops capable of resisting insects without pesticide sprays. Europe's own science academies have found no new risks to human health or the environment from any of the genetically engineered crops placed on the market so far, but since overfed Europe can do without this technology, underfed Africa is told to do the same."

January 25, 2008

"Calestous Juma Appointed as Special Adviser to International Whaling Commission"

By Calestous Juma, Professor of the Practice of International Development; Director, Science, Technology, and Globalization Project

Calestous Juma, director of the Science, Technology, and Globalization Project at the Belfer Center, has been appointed special adviser to the International Whaling Commission. He is to help advise on the future of the commission and is assisting with the preparation of a special meeting to be held in London in March 2007. His appointment was prompted by the Commission members' differences regarding the resumption of commercial whaling.

2007

"Patterns of Political Support and Pathways to Final Impact"

AgBioForum: The Journal of AgroBiotechnology Management & Economics, Special Issue: Biofortified Food Crops: Progress and Prospects in Developing Countries, issue 3, volume 10

By Calestous Juma, Professor of the Practice of International Development; Director, Science, Technology, and Globalization Project, Robert Paarlberg, Research Fellow, Science, Technology and Globalization, Carl Pray and Laurian Unnevehr

"To summarize and conclude this special issue of AgBioForum it will be useful first to present the lessons learned so far in the form of a scheme for predicting which biofortified food technologies will enjoy the greatest political support or opposition, and from which actors on the political landscape. The approach here is necessarily hypothetical, given that most of the biofortified food technologies currently under scientific development have yet to be released into any commercial marketplace. After offering this summary projection of likely political responses, this final section then examines the likely consequences in terms of actual nutritional impact."

2007

"Addressing Micronutrient Deficiencies: Alternative Interventions and Technologies"

AgBioForum: The Journal of AgroBiotechnology Management & Economics, Special Issue: Biofortified Food Crops: Progress and Prospects in Developing Countries, issue 3, volume 10

By Laurian Unnevehr, Carl Pray and Robert Paarlberg, Research Fellow, Science, Technology and Globalization

"Improving the nutritional value of staple food crops has usually been a secondary concern for high-income consumers, who have access to improved nutrition through dietary diversification. As a consequence, the scientific improvement of staple food crops has focused on improving yield and productivity (Morris & Sands, 2006). Market forces have tended to reward higher yield far more than higher nutrient content, and crop breeders have often felt they must sacrifice the latter to get the former."

2007

"Patterns of Political Response to Biofortified Varieties of Crops Produced with Different Breeding Techniques and Agronomic Traits"

AgBioForum: The Journal of AgroBiotechnology Management & Economics, Special Issue: Biofortified Food Crops: Progress and Prospects in Developing Countries, issue 3, volume 10

By Carl Pray, Robert Paarlberg, Research Fellow, Science, Technology and Globalization and Laurian Unnevehr

"Political responses to novel foods and crops can be specific to the new traits of those crops (agronomic versus enhanced nutrients), to the intended uses of those crops (food for people versus feed for animals), and also to the methods used to introduced those traits (conventional breeding versus genetic engineering). This article describes variations in observed political responses to three different categories of novel foods and crops: conventionally bred crops with enhanced nutrient traits; genetically engineered/modified organisms (GMOs), in this case, plant varieties with enhanced agronomic traits; and GMOs with enhanced nutrient traits."

2007

"Political Actors on the Landscape"

AgBioForum: The Journal of AgroBiotechnology Management & Economics, Special Issue: Biofortified Food Crops: Progress and Prospects in Developing Countries, issue 3, volume 10

By Robert Paarlberg, Research Fellow, Science, Technology and Globalization and Carl Pray

"Efforts to introduce novel agricultural crops or foods are welcomed and supported by some politically important groups in the developing world, ignored by others, and at times opposed by a significant few. When considering the political actors on the landscape most likely to take active positions either for or against novel foods, there is little or no evidence of political resistance to any of the biofortified foods developed thus far using conventional crop-breeding techniques, yet resistance to GMO crops has been widespread for much of the past decade. Which actors on the landscape are opposing GMOs, how powerful are they, and will their opposition weaken if the current generation of GMO crops carrying improved agronomic traits is followed by a second generation of GMOs carrying improved nutrient traits?"