Full Description
Genetically modified crops have become a key element of development
strategies across the Global South, despite remaining deeply controversial. Proponents hail them as an example of 'pro-poor' innovation, while critics regard them as a threat to food sovereignty and the environment. The promotion
of biotechnology is an integral part of 'new Green Revolution for Africa' interventions and is also intimately linked to the rise of 'philanthrocapitalism,' which advances business solutions to address the problem of poverty.
Through interviews with farmers, policymakers and agricultural scientists, Jacqueline Ignatova shows how efforts to transform the seed sector in northern Ghana - one of the key laboratories of this 'new Green Revolution' - may serve to exacerbate the inequality it was notionally intended to address. But she also argues that its effects in Ghana have been far more complex than either side of the debate has acknowledged, with local farmers proving adept at blending traditional and modern agricultural methods that subvert the interests of global agribusiness.
Contents
Acknowledgments
List of abbreviations
Preface
Introduction
Chapter 1: Green Revolution discourse, structural adjustment, and the "enabling environment" for agribusiness
Chapter 2: Philanthrocapitalism and the politics of public-private partnerships
Chapter 3: Biocapital, "pro-poor" biotechnology, and legislative changes in the seed sector
Chapter 4: Technological savior or terminator gene? Biotechnology, food security, and the political economy of hype
Chapter 5: Experts, entrepreneurs, and the "last mile user"
Interlude: On "mixing"
Chapter 6: Neocolonial anxieties
Conclusion
