Patterns of political response to biofortified varieties of crops produced with different breeding techniques and agronomic traits
2008
C. Pray | R. Paarlberg | L. Unnevehr
This paper examines the political response to two crops that were nutritionally enhanced through conventional breeding - Quality Protein Maize (QPM) and orange-fleshed sweet potatoes. It also looks at the political response to other food crops - maize, potato, and papaya ,as well as biofortified Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) rice, potatoes, cassava, and sorghum. <br /><br />Key points include: to gain political support as well as extensive adoption by farmers, biofortification needs to be combined with attractive agronomic traits case studies from Africa and Mexico show that only GMOs have elicited a strong negative political response and that the consumer trait bio-fortification is not likely to make GMOs more appealing to activists and politicians political opposition to GMOs can be outweighed by well-organised, politically powerful interest groups.The authors conclude that the combination of GM technology with bio-fortification has not led to greater acceptance of GM crops although no GM bio-fortified crops have yet been released for general use. Thus, it seems that a combination of crop qualities intersecting with local political forces will determine the ultimate success of a GM or bio-fortified crop. The use of GM technology raises significant additional barriers to the development and eventual success of any bio-fortified crop. <br />
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