Agrobiotechnology Articles
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Controversy about agricultural technology lessons from the green revolution
The development and introduction of transgenically modified organisms to enhance crop and animal production has generated considerable controversy about potential food safety and environmental impacts. The introduction, in tropical Latin America and Asia, of high yielding varieties of wheat, maize and rice beginning in the late 1960s was also controversial. Critics argued that the new technology ...
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Innovating through networks: a case study in plant biotechnology
This paper is based on the case study of a large firm, namely Monsanto, which created a new knowledge base to sustain a strategic diversification from agrochemicals to plant biotechnology. This in-depth analysis helps to belie the idea of spontaneous developments of links between university and industry. While informal relationships, mutual respect and reciprocity, appear to be necessary for the ...
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Biotechnology and the changing structure of agri-food supply chains
Rapid technological change in agricultural biotechnology, the characteristics of the technology and firms' strategic responses have altered the structure of the agricultural input supply sector and are changing vertical relationships between firms downstream in the agri-food chain. A number of economic theories shed light on what is happening, why it is happening and how the agri-food chain may ...
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Learning from the Terminator debacle
Monsanto's 1999 decision not to acquire "sterile seed technology", otherwise known as the "Terminator", was in response to widespread pressure. The technology's commercial potential was "uncertain", and the company's image and share price were taking a beating. Potential international suitors risked being scared off. Few people anywhere could find any redeeming ...
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From principle to action: applying the precautionary principle to agricultural biotechnology
The precautionary principle advises that we take measures to avoid harm to the environment and public health even when there is scientific uncertainty regarding the nature and extent of harms that may result. The principle is rapidly evolving and gaining status in national and international law. We review four key elements included in all interpretations of the precautionary principle to date. We ...
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Agricultural biotechnology policies and research investments in Mexico
This paper examines the agricultural biotechnology research situation in Mexico. In addition to providing insights into the institutional and policy evolution, it analyses a quantitative survey of biotechnology investments in the 14 most important national public and private research organisations from 1985 to 1997. During this time period, Mexico experienced a noteworthy biotechnology ...
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Intellectual property protection and capacity building in Mexican plant biotechnology
Mexico's intellectual property protection (IPP) legislation has been radically reformed on the premise that this would facilitate foreign investment and the transfer of technology, both of which were considered necessary to modernise the economy. It was assumed that stronger IPP would also stimulate Mexico's own scientific-technological capacity both in the private and the public sector. This ...
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Managing agricultural biotechnology for sustainable development: the case of semi-arid India
Managing agricultural biotechnology for sustainable development demands more than research and intellectual property rights policies. Economic and regulatory institutions conducive to application of intrinsically sustainable technologies are also required. From an interdisciplinary development research perspective, it is argued that sustainability of Indian agriculture and food crop production ...
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The effect of religion, education and income on the level of acceptance of biotechnology
Consumers' concerns about the health impacts of genetically modified foods (GMF) are perceived to be the largest threat to the future development of agricultural biotechnology. Using the results of a survey in Israel, this paper shows that more religious people have a higher tendency to oppose GMF while more educated people are more likely to accept it. Acceptance of GMF is high when it is ...
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How biotechnology is changing the structure of the seed industry
The seed industry has been in a state of restructuring for many years now. New firms have entered the industry and old players have merged. Firms from various backgrounds now compete in supplying seed to agriculture and horticulture traditional seed companies, new biotechnology firms, agrochemical companies, food processors and wholesalers/retailers. As biotechnology enables the enhancement of ...
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Plant biotechnology and agricultural supply industry restructuring
The strategic horizon of the agricultural supply industry (pesticides and seeds) is darkened by grave uncertainties. These are the result of the growing multiform resistance of society to the present or potential risks of genetically modified organisms to health and the environment. They are also the consequences of counter-strategies implemented by economic players who are close to final ...
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Intellectual property and biotechnology: trade interests of developing countries
Biotechnology has the potential to provide the answers to some of the developing world's most intractable problems. There is scope for developing countries to interpret the provisions of the WTO TRIPS Agreement on biotechnology at different levels, as evidenced by differing interpretations in the developed world. Equally, however, demands of developing countries on biodiversity-related issues can ...
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Agricultural biotechnology: risks and opportunities for developing country food security
Agricultural biotechnology presents opportunities for reducing poverty, food insecurity, child malnutrition, and natural resource degradation. Small farmers in developing countries are faced with many problems and constraints which biotechnology may assist. About 1.2 billion people, or one of every five humans, live in a state of absolute poverty, on the equivalent of US$1 a day or less. Modern ...
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Agrobiotechnology choices in developing countries
Today's agrobiotechnology revolution - especially the move toward transgenic or genetically modified (GM) crops - is being researched, commercialised, and (hotly) debated mostly in Europe, the USA, and elsewhere within the rich industrial world. Yet it is in the developing countries where the greatest human and environmental promise - or peril - of this new technology may lie. This paper argues ...
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Biotechnology for small-scale farmers: a Kenyan case study
The paper analyses ex ante the potential economic effects of tissue culture biotechnology, which is being introduced into the Kenyan banana sector through an international collaborative project. The expected yield and income gains are sizable, because the pathogen-free banana planting material could substantially reduce the current crop losses induced by pests and diseases. However, using the ...
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The Safety of Genetically Modified Foods Produced through Biotechnology
Executive Summary The Society of Toxicology (SOT) is committed to protecting and enhancing human, animal, and environmental health through the sound application of the fundamental principles of the science of toxicology. It is with this goal in mind that the SOT defines here its current consensus position on the safety of foods produced through biotechnology (genetic engineering). These products ...
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Biotechnology for Environmentally Safe Agriculture
Issue: In Europe some uses of biotechnology are meeting vocal opposition from certain quarters. Nevertheless, the vast amount of knowledge acquired recently in biology can be used to develop and apply biotechnology for an environmentally safe agriculture. Public acceptance and a new policy impetus can serve to promote the introduction of safe and competitive agricultural technologies that have a ...
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