Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology for Food Security and for Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation: Potential and Risks (No. 17)

About the Book

World hunger is a multifaceted problem that cannot be solved by technological changes alone. Meanwhile industrial agriculture is unsustainable, and technological adjustments based on genetic engineering have not been able to achieve the relevant Millennium Development Goals; instead, they have introduced products that restrict farmer-based innovation, in situ conservation and access to the best locally adapted germplasm.

Alternative agricultural models, such as agroecology, demonstrate potential to reduce poverty, increase food security and reduce agriculture’s environmental footprint because they increase agroecosystem resilience, lower external inputs, boost farmers’ incomes and are based on technologies that, for the most part, can be understood, implemented and further modified by poor and subsistence farmers.


About the author

Jack A. Heinemann is with the Centre for Integrated Research in Biosafety (INBI) and the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand.


Contents

Chapter 1. Introduction
    
Chapter 2. Choosing Among Technological Paths to Pro-Poor, Climate-Resilient Agriculture

Chapter 3. How Some Biotechnologies Are Failing
    
Chapter 4. Why Some Biotechnologies Could Succeed

Chapter 5. Conclusions

References