The genomics revolution and development studies: Science, poverty and politics

Ronald Herring

Journal of Development Studies, 2007, vol. 43, issue 1, 1-30

Abstract: The genomics revolution in biology has enabled technologies with unprecedented potential; genetic engineering is changing the terrain of development studies. Societies have reacted with indifference or appreciation to genetically engineered pharmaceuticals, beginning with insulin; yet for food and agriculture, a globally contentious politics and unprecedented policy dilemmas have arisen. Transgenic organisms raise questions of property, ethics and safety unimaginable a generation ago: what can be owned and with what responsibility? Much turns on science: how one conceptualizes evidence, knowledge, uncertainty and risk. Both opponents and proponents of frontier applications in biotechnology have a poverty story to tell, but with divergent implications. The balance in this global debate has perceptibly shifted; a new developmentalist consensus concludes that the world's poor may benefit from genetic engineering: the question is 'under what conditions'? This essay introduces a collection of scholarly treatments that begin with the needs of the poor - for income, nutrition, environmental integrity - and evaluate theory and evidence for contributions from transgenic crops. The new consensus assumes much about biosafety, bioproperty and biopolitics that is contrary to ground realities - the actual capacity of firms and states to monitor and control biotechnology - but raises new questions at the frontiers of development studies.

Date: 2007
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DOI: 10.1080/00220380601055502

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