Agricultural biotechnologies, and especially transgenic crops, have the potential to offer higher incomes for farmers and better quality food for consumers in developing countries and lower-priced food, feed and fiber globally. That potential is being heavily compromised, however, because some richer countries, especially in Europe have implemented strict regulatory systems to govern the production and consumption of genetically modified (GM) food and feed crops. Why has the European Union taken the extreme opposite policy position on GM food to equally affluent North America? What has been the impact of that policy stance on economic welfare of adopting and non-adopting developing countries so far? Why did this ‘Gene Revolution’ begin with maize, soybean and canola (along with cotton) rather than with the world’s most important food crops, namely wheat and rice? What impact could GM adoption by other developing countries have on their (and other countries’) economic welfare and trade, including prospective GM varieties of wheat and rice? How do the potential gains from GM cotton adoption in Africa compare with the prospective gains poor cotton farmers would enjoy if subsidies to cotton production and exports in the United States and elsewhere were eliminated? This research project addresses these types of questions by making use of, among other things, a detailed simulation model of the global economy known as GTAP. Papers to emerge so far are the following: Anderson, K., C. Nielsen, S. Robinson and K. Thierfelder (2001), “ Estimating the Global Economic Effects of GMOs”, Ch. 4 in The Future of Food: Biotechnology Markets and Policies in an International Setting, edited by P. Pardey, Washington, D.C.: International Food Policy Research Institute. (pdf - 128 KB)
Page last updated on August 4, 2006
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