American Foundations: An Investigative History by Mark Dowie

American Foundations: An Investigative History by Mark Dowie

Author:Mark Dowie
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2009-10-03T08:01:00+00:00


Increases in agricultural productivity, whether measured in terms of land, labor or capital, cannot of themselves solve the problems of the poor. Producing more food is a necessary, but not sufficient condition for alleviating poverty.... There is now enough food in the world so that no one need, in theory, go hungry. Yet malnutrition and poverty persist in developing country and the family farm remains a precarious form of livelihood in the West.

But Conway had more to say.

Increased productivity needs also to be sustainable in both ecological and socioeconomic terms. Farming systems reliant on techniques that are polluting or degrading of soil and water, or are dependent on subsidized inputs, carry their own seeds of disaster. Sustainability is threatened too by technologies that prove insensitive to traditional social and cultural values.... For the poor to benefit from the potential agricultural technology they have to gain greater control over the institutions, both formal and informal, that govern access to resources and inputs and the distribution of harvests.66

This was new and decidedly radical advice, even for the Ford Foundation, which has historically valued the social sciences more than the Rockefeller has. While both foundations have tended to remain defensive about social criticism of the revolution and intent upon a biological approach to ending hunger, exciting changes seem possible with Gordon Conway running the Rockefeller Foundation, given his cautionary attitude toward agricultural biotechnology.

In June of 1999, Conway addressed a special meeting of the board of directors of the Monsanto Corporation, by then the leading international player in commercial plant biotechnology. The gathering was held in secret at the Willard Hotel, a few blocks from the White House. The directors were expecting a friendly visit from the gracious Mr. Conway. Instead they received a tongue-lashing. The industry, Conway maintained, had rushed too many controversial products to market and created a backlash against itself. Monsanto, the main target of the backlash, had recently acquired a smaller seed company that owned the patent on a genetic technology that rendered seeds sterile.

The so called terminator gene was designed to prevent farmers from collecting seeds from their own crops without paying the seed's patent owner a royalty. With dead seeds, farmers would have no choice but to buy new seeds from the patent owner (Monsanto) every season. In an impassioned speech, Conway implored Monsanto to abandon the terminator technology, stop opposing labeling laws, and consider the real needs of farmers in the developing world. In light of recent protests in Europe and India over the whole matter of genetically modified organisms, Conway feared that the growing backlash against Monsanto over the terminator seed would spill over and damage public support for all crop biotechnology. "We have a lot of people to feed," he said, "and biotechnology is one of the answers."67

"Admit that you do not have all the answers," he told the stunned but furious directors, who included international bankers, Harvard academics, former Secretary of Commerce Mickey Kantor, and the former heads of the U.S. Social Security system and the Environmental Protection Agency.



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