[Ip-health] KEI Brownbag this Thursday: Sakiko Fukuda-Parr on The Gene Revolution

[Malini Aisola]

Mark your calendars!

Knowledge Ecology International (KEI) is hosting a brownbag lunch
seminar by Sakiko Fukuda-Parr on "The Gene Revolution: GM Crops and
Unequal Development.=94

Date: Thursday, March 15, 2007
Time: 12:30 - 2:00pm
Venue: KEI/CPTech, 1621 Connecticut Avenue, Suite 500, Washington, DC 20009

If you would like to attend this seminar, please RSVP your name, title,
organization to malini.aisola@cptech.org or 202 332 2670.

About the book, "The Gene Revolution: GM Crops and Unequal Development":

=91An indispensable guide for evidence-based discussions on the
institutional aspects of biotechnology. Every myth-maker should take
seriously the findings and implications=92 Calestous Juma, Harvard Universi=
ty

=91A much needed antidote to the highly polemical writing on both sides of
the this issue=92 Raymond C. Oppenheiser, President, Oxfam America

The high-yield selective breeding of =91the Green Revolution=92 of the 1960=
s
and =9270s is now being overtaken by =91the Gene Revolution=92 =96 the
development and spread of GM crops across the world. With over 90
million hectares already under cultivation and 60 countries conducting
research, GM is reviled by some as a vast Pandora=92s Box and corporate
sell-out, while hailed by others as the necessary technological solution
to stagnating agricultural output, ballooning populations, climate
change and drought. Sandwiched in between are developing and
transitional countries where the need to feed vast populations and to
compete against the US in international markets are compelling reasons
to get on the GM bandwagon while lack of access to EU markets for export
crops and the fear of environmental and health risks give reason to pause.

This is the first book to bridge the gap between the =91naysayers=92 and
=91cheerleaders=92 and look at the issues and complexities facing developin=
g
and transitional countries over decisions about GM in light of the
reality of what is happening on the ground. This volume sorts the issues
facing countries in the GM debate and looks at the realities, policies
and institutions at work. Chapter authors representing different
national and institutional perspectives from China, India, Brazil,
Argentina, South Africa and western Africa, well as the USA and Europe,
present the experiences, issues and points of debate as viewed from
different quarters.

Global inequalities in the 21 st century will be driven not only by
resources and governance but by technological divides. Mired in distrust
of scientists and corporations, policy debates on agricultural
biotechnology are polarized between the opposition movement intent on
stopping its spread and the advocates pursuing market expansion for GM
products.

This book is an attempt to stimulate attention towards an alternative
vision for GM crops and development, one that can harness this powerful
technology to meet national priorities - for growth, equity and
sustainability.

The core message is that new and alternative institutional (and
business) models are needed in developing countries: licensing corporate
technologies will not be adequate to meet developing country priorities;
the corporate model of tight patents that facilitated the emergence of
GM crops in the US, the precautionary regulations that set high
biosafety standards in the EU, and the contract based seed marketing do
not work in developing country contexts. A new model is needed to
redirect R & D to priorities of resource poor farmers and low income
consumers, and to create competitive seed markets that can deliver well
adapted varieties to farmers at low cost. What is missing today is a
political alliance for a pro-poor agenda for GM technology development -
global public support for a pro-poor R & D agenda, a political alliance
of pro-poor civil society advocacy for mobilizing new technology for
human development, and public financing for developing country access.

About the book's editor:

Sakiko Fukuda-Parr is Visiting Professor at the New School Graduate
Program in International Affairs. She is a development economist working
in the human development and human rights perspectives. She was a
Research Fellow at Harvard University=92s Kennedy School of Government
where she worked on her latest publication on the political economy of
agricultural biotechnology =96 The Gene Revolution: GM Crops and Unequal
Development. From 1995 to 2004, she was director and chief author of the
UNDP Human Development Reports. Created by Mahbub ul Haq to advocate
policy options that expand human choices and freedom, this annual
publication that tracks global poverty and development has been an
influential source on policy challenges for politicians, governments,
NGOs, media, academia. Sakiko also founded and is editor of the Journal
of Human Development, and is on the Editorial Board of Feminist
Economics. She is also on the board of several NGOs that advocate human
rights and technology for development.