Dr. Noah Zerbe
Associate Professor, Department of Politics
Humboldt State University
Agricultural Biotechnology Reconsidered: Western Narratives and African Alternatives. (Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 2005).
Abstract
Since the 1980s, advances in biotechnology have captured the popular imagination. Mainstream accounts of the new technology have emphasized both the potential dangers and the possible benefits. The rise of commercial biotechnology has generated extensive debate between its advocates-for whom recent innovations will lead to cures for nearly every disease known to humanity while simultaneously curing hunger, malnutrition, and poverty-and its critics, who warn that biotechnology will create new environmental dilemmas and ultimately prove unable to deliver any of the benefits its advocates claim. Both positions, however, are overstated. Biotechnology is unlikely to prove either as beneficial or as dangerous as either its advocates or critics contend. Instead, biotechnology is a tool that, as like any other, reflects the social conditions of its production. In this book, I seek to understand the nature of those conditions, examining in particular the position of science and technology in capitalism. I outline the contours of commercial biotechnology in the context of global capitalism. Beginning from the premise that technology is socially mediated, reflecting the conditions of its development and production, I explore the way in which biotechnology has developed as a commercial enterprise in the United States, transitioning from its early beginnings as a field of academic research into a major focus of American high technology and competitive advantage. I explore the impact that (now globalized) biotechnology has on Southern Africa. Finally, I analyze the development of other models of agricultural research and production-Zimbabwe's system of maize research and the African Model Law-which highlight important alternatives to the capital-intensive farming and research practices of the United States.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements iv
List of Figures and Tables vi
Abbreviations and Acronyms vii
Chapter 1: Introduction: Globalization, Technology, and Development 1
Technology and Capitalism 4
Technology and Globalization 15
Inclusion and Exclusion: Africa in the Global Political Economy 17
Why Biotechnology? 21
Why Zimbabwe? 27
Chapter 2: Building Life? Political and Economic Foundations of Biotechnology
Introduction 36
The Theory and Technology of Biotechnology 39
Biotechnology Risk and Regulation 42
Intellectual Property and Biotechnology 50
Commercial Interest in Biotechnology 58
Conclusion 66
Chapter 3: Globalization and Biotechnology
Introduction 68
International Agreements 70
Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights 73
TRIPs and the Worldwide Expansion of the Biotech Industry 79
Convention on Biological Diversity 86
TRIPs and CBD: Divergent Perspectives or Common Framework? 90
Conclusion 101
Chapter 4: New Messiah or False Prophet? Biotechnology and Agricultural Production in Southern Africa
Introduction 103
Current Status of Commercial Agrobiotechnology 105
Promise and Peril of Agricultural Biotechnology in Southern Africa 110
Agricultural Research and the Nature of the Seed 119
Biotechnology and Increasing Inequality 130
Biodiversity and Biotechnology 142
Conclusion 147
Chapter 5: Zimbabwe’s Colonial Inheritance
Introduction 149
Colonial Land and Labor Policy 152
The Rise of Colonial Agriculture 162
Displacement and Destruction of Indigenous Agriculture 167
Discriminatory Market Access 169
Maize Seed Research in Colonial Rhodesia 173
Conclusion 186
Chapter 6: Zimbabwe’s Alternative
Introduction 188
The Land Question Under Decolonization 189
Growth with Equity 205
Postindependence Seed Networks 229
The Development of Zimbabwe’s Maize Seed Network 215
Neoliberal Structural Adjustment, Social Policy, and the Seed Industry 219
Zimbabwe’s Seed Industry After ESAP 225
TRIPs and the Zimbabwean Seed Industry 231
Conclusion 235
Chapter 7: Conclusion: Popular Versus Liberal Democracy in the Governance of Science
Summary 238
Lessons from the Research 247
The African Model Law 255
Expanding the African Position 274
Bibliography
Primary Sources 278
Secondary Sources 281
Interviews 310