Abstract
This paper reviews current trends in the development of agricultural biotechnology, including (1) the recent and potential biotechnology products and processes in the plant, animal and food sciences, and (2) the enormous increase in Federal and State government and industrial investments in biotechnology research. Next we analyze the impacts and possible consequences of agricultural biotechnology for public and private agricultural research and for the structure and nature of the food system in this country and around the world. We conclude with a range of proposals for agricultural research policies. Among the possible consequences we discuss are: (1) a shift in disciplinary emphasis in the research community to molecular biology, (2) reduction of research on systems, ecology, and the social sciences, (3) increased concentration of research funds at a small number of institutions, (4) reduction of long-term research in the public sector, (5) increased collaboration between industry, government and universities with a restriction of scientific communication, and a potential for conflict of interest, favoritism and increased scientific misconduct, (6) a change of the primary goals and agenda of the public sector research community, and (7) increased concentration in the agribusiness sector and the industrialization of the food system. Our policy suggestions include: (1) maintaining and strengthening an independent public research and teaching system, (2) striking a balance between short-term proprietary biotechnology and long-term nonproprietary research, (3) maintaining an extension system that delivers biotechnology information and products to all potential users, (4) developing a regulatory system that adequately protects the public and provides clear guidelines to industry. (5) assisting developing nations to reap the benefits of the biotechnology revolution, and (6) establishing mechanisms to foster broad-based understanding of the social and ethical issues relating to agricultural biotechnology and to promote research on the social and ethical impacts.
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Dr. William B. Lacy is Professor of Sociology and Director of the Kellogg funded Food, Environment, Agriculture and Society in Transition program at the University of Kentucky. In July, he will move to Pennsylvania State University to be Assistant Dean for Research and Professor of Rural Sociology in the College of Agriculture. He has co-authored/co-edited 5 books and numerous journal articles on agricultural research, science policy and biotechnology includingScience, Agriculture and the Politics of Research (1983),Biotechnology and Agricultural Cooperatives: Opportunities and Challenges (1988), andSecond Nature: Plant Breeding and the New Biotechnologies (forthcoming).
Dr. Laura Lacy is an Assistant Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Centre College, Danville, Kentucky. In September, she will join the Plant Pathology Department at Pennsylvania State University as a Research Scientist. In addition to her interests in developing undergraduate education in cellular and molecular biology, Dr. Lacy's research employs a variety of recombinant DNA techniques in studying molecular mechanisms regulating eukaryotic gene expression.
Dr. Lawrence Busch is Professor of Sociology and Co-Chair of the Committee for Agricultural Research Policy in the College of Agriculture at the University of Kentucky. He is the author or editor of numerous articles and reports and several books on agricultural research, includingScience, and Agricultural Development (1981),Science, Agriculture and the Politics of Research (1983),Food Security in the United States (1984),The Agricultural Scientific Enterprise (1986), andSecond Nature: Plant Breeding and the New Biotechnologies (forthcoming).
An earlier version of this paper was presented at the University of Vermont in February 1989. Portions of this work were supported in part by a grant from the Ethics & Values in Science Program at the National Science Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities under grant no. RII-8217306. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of NSF or NEH.
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Lacy, W.B., Lacy, L.R. & Busch, L. Agricultural biotechnology research: Practices, consequences, and policy recommendations. Agric Hum Values 5, 3–14 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02217655
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02217655