Issues in the political economy of agricultural biotechnology

The Open University's repository of research publications and other research outputs Issues in the political economy of agricultural biotechnology Journal Article Copyright and Moral Rights for the articles on this site are retained by the individual authors and/or other copyright owners. For more information on Open Research Online's data policy on reuse of materials please consult the policies page. Agricultural biotechnology is typically analyzed critically by means of a political ecological focus on the science and its ecological implications – agbio science as a radical and 'non-natural', break with 'normal' trajectories for 'new plant science'. Surprisingly, less attention has been paid to a range of key political economic issues, many of which were important in the last big food production technology 'revolution', the green revolution. This paper will focus on three areas of political economy. First, we discuss the corporate drivers of agricultural biotechnology, and examine whether these drivers have already set the technology so that it cannot be changed. Second, we investigate the present economics and technology of genetic modification in plants, and its possible future. Third, we examine empirical evidence for alternative visions of the technology.