 TRANSGENIC CROPS AND THE ENVIRONMENT: MISSING MARKETS AND PUBLIC ROLESandra S. Batie and David E. Ervin No 11556, Staff Paper Series from Michigan State University, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics Abstract: The rapidity of change has left scant opportunity for investigation of the consequences of biotechnology adoption on long-term ecosystem or economic system functioning. Economic theory suggests that, if the "Biotechnology Revolution" is left to market forces alone,there will be neglected public goods. Theory and limited empirical evidence suggests that there are significant incentives for private firms to discount and neglect certain environmental impacts and to develop products that meet only the needs of those able and willing to pay. Negative distributional impacts on rural societies and economies will not normally enter the private calculus nor will the long-term problems of insect and plant resistance. Thus, there is a strong case for enhanced public roles with respect to the use of transgenic crops. The adoption of the precautionary approach in public policies addressing transgenic crops is one alternative to better reflect public concerns. Keywords: Environmental Economics and Policy; Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:midasp:11556 Access Statistics for this paper More papers in Staff Paper Series from Michigan State University, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics Contact information at EDIRC. |
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