BIOTECHNOLOGY
April 22, 2008
"It's Not the Price That Causes Hunger"
Op-Ed, 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."
March 2008
Starved for Science: How Biotechnology is Being Kept Out of Africa
Book
By Robert Paarlberg, Research Fellow, Science, Technology and Globalization
Heading upcountry in Africa to visit small farms is absolutely exhilarating given the dramatic beauty of big skies, red soil, and arid vistas, but eventually the two-lane tarmac narrows to rutted dirt, and the journey must continue on foot. The farmers you eventually meet are mostly women, hardworking but visibly poor. They have no improved seeds, no chemical fertilizers, no irrigation, and with their meager crops they earn less than a dollar a day. Many are malnourished.
Nearly two-thirds of Africans are employed in agriculture, yet on a per-capita basis they produce roughly 20 percent less than they did in 1970. Although modern agricultural science was the key to reducing rural poverty in Asia, modern farm science—including biotechnology—has recently been kept out of Africa.
February 29, 2008
"Africa's Organic Farms"
Op-Ed, 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."
2007
"Patterns of Political Support and Pathways to Final Impact"
Journal Article, 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
"Political Actors on the Landscape"
Journal Article, 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?"
2007
"Addressing Micronutrient Deficiencies: Alternative Interventions and Technologies"
Journal Article, 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."
November 29, 2007
"Improving China's Image in Africa"
Op-Ed, Business Daily, (Nairobi)
By Calestous Juma, Professor of the Practice of International Development; Director, Science, Technology, and Globalization Project
"China’s ability to respond rapidly to requests for investment in new areas such as infrastructure has emboldened many African leaders who are under pressure to meet their electoral promises....Many of the transactions between China and Africa are kept confidential and little is known about their terms. Promoting greater transparency and mutual learning from those arrangements will help to improve the image of Chinese businesses in Africa."
November 15, 2007
"Africa Warms Up to Biotechnology"
Op-Ed, Business Daily, (Nairobi)
By Ismail Serageldin and Calestous Juma, Professor of the Practice of International Development; Director, Science, Technology, and Globalization Project
"Much of the debate about biotechnology in Africa assumes that African countries are only being asked to accept products developed elsewhere. To the contrary, Freedom to Innovate: Biotechnology in Africa’s Development shows that extensive biotechnology research is under way in Africa...."
November 13, 2007
"Putting Biotechnology to Economic Use in Africa"
Op-Ed, Business Daily, (Nairobi)
By Calestous Juma, Professor of the Practice of International Development; Director, Science, Technology, and Globalization Project and Ismail Serageldin
African leaders are determined to forge a new economic outlook based on science and innovation. This is reflected in their decision to seek advice from African experts on the role of biotechnology in Africa’s development.
The results of the work of the High-level African Panel on Modern Biotechnology are contained in Freedom to Innovate: Biotechnology in Africa’s Development....Freedom to Innovate outlines specific and practical measures to advance development, quality of life and environmental sustainability using biotechnology. It is a bold statement on the need for Africa to build the capacity needed to manage emerging technologies.
November 13, 2007
"Africa Should Bank on Innovation"
Op-Ed, Business Daily, (Nairobi)
By Calestous Juma, Professor of the Practice of International Development; Director, Science, Technology, and Globalization Project and Ismail Serageldin
"Biotechnology offers a wide range of economic growth opportunities for Africa. But as “Freedom to Innovate”, a biotechnology report on Africa’s Development shows, the continent needs to locate biotechnology policy in the context of wider economic strategies. Technological development goes hand in hand with overall economic growth and not as an isolated activity."
