Starved for Science: How Biotechnology Is Being Kept Out of Africa - Softcover

Paarlberg

  • 3.86 out of 5 stars
    88 ratings by Goodreads
 
9780674033474: Starved for Science: How Biotechnology Is Being Kept Out of Africa
Softcover
ISBN 10: 0674033477 ISBN 13: 9780674033474
Publisher: Harvard University Press, 2009

Synopsis

Listen to a short interview with Robert PaarlbergHost: Chris Gondek | Producer: Heron & Crane

Heading upcountry in Africa to visit small farms is absolutely exhilarating given the dramatic beauty of big skies, red soil, and arid vistas, but eventually the two-lane tarmac narrows to rutted dirt, and the journey must continue on foot. The farmers you eventually meet are mostly women, hardworking but visibly poor. They have no improved seeds, no chemical fertilizers, no irrigation, and with their meager crops they earn less than a dollar a day. Many are malnourished.

Nearly two-thirds of Africans are employed in agriculture, yet on a per-capita basis they produce roughly 20 percent less than they did in 1970. Although modern agricultural science was the key to reducing rural poverty in Asia, modern farm science―including biotechnology―has recently been kept out of Africa.

In Starved for Science Robert Paarlberg explains why poor African farmers are denied access to productive technologies, particularly genetically engineered seeds with improved resistance to insects and drought. He traces this obstacle to the current opposition to farm science in prosperous countries. Having embraced agricultural science to become well-fed themselves, those in wealthy countries are now instructing Africans―on the most dubious grounds―not to do the same.

In a book sure to generate intense debate, Paarlberg details how this cultural turn against agricultural science among affluent societies is now being exported, inappropriately, to Africa. Those who are opposed to the use of agricultural technologies are telling African farmers that, in effect, it would be just as well for them to remain poor.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

About the Authors

Robert Paarlberg is Betty F. Johnson Professor of Political Science at Wellesley College.

Norman Borlaug is Distinguished Professor of International Agriculture at Texas A&M University and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970.

Jimmy Carter is former President of the United States. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.

Publisher
Harvard University Press
Publication date
2009
Language
English
ISBN 10 
0674033477
ISBN 13 
9780674033474
Binding
Paperback
Edition number
1
Number of pages
256
Rating
  • 3.86 out of 5 stars
    88 ratings by Goodreads

Other Popular Editions of the Same Title

9780674029736: Starved for Science: How Biotechnology Is Being Kept Out of Africa

Featured Edition

ISBN 10:  0674029739 ISBN 13:  9780674029736
Publisher: Harvard University Press, 2008
Hardcover