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SeedQuest presents
Plant Breeding and Biotechnology -
Societal Context
and the Future of Agriculture
Denis
J. Murphy, University of Glamorgan, United Kingdom |
A word from the
author
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Denis J. Murphy is Professor of Biotechnology at
the University of Glamorgan, United
Kingdom.
His career in plant biotechnology research spans
three decades, including ten years on the
management team of the John Innes Centre,
arguably Europe’s premier research centre in
plant science.
He
is currently highly involved with the ongoing
debate on genetically modified food and crops,
both locally and internationally, providing
expertise and advice to numerous organisations
and government agencies, as well as engaging
with the general public and the media. |
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In my recent
book, Plant Breeding and Biotechnology: Societal Context and
the Future of Agriculture, I attempt to analyze how the
scientific and social structures that underpin crop science have
evolved over the past couple of centuries. In particular I was
keen to understand the peculiar recent phenomenon of
agricultural biotechnology (agbiotech) and the immense
controversies that it has spawned. Unlike previous and arguably
equally revolutionary developments in crop science, from hybrid
varieties to the Green Revolution, agbiotech has unleashed an
unparalleled storm of public disquiet and scientific dispute
that has yet to be fully resolved.
For the past thirty years I have been privileged to work on a
wide variety of crop related research topics in a range of
institutes and universities, from California to Germany, via
Australia and the UK. This has enabled me to follow at close
quarters how academic and commercial research has evolved and
the effects of such developments on both research scientists and
the wider plant breeding industry. The past decade in particular
has witnessed many momentous changes in the conduct of plant
research and its application via breeding to the improvement of
global agriculture. Following the spectacular successes of the
earlier Green Revolution have come the modern opportunities and
challenges of biotechnology and genomics. Alongside these
scientific developments there has been significant restructuring
and realignment of both public and private sector R&D related to
crop breeding.
This book follows the history of plant breeding R&D in relation
to its scientific aspects and in its wider socio-economic
aspects. One conclusion is that progress in crop improvement has
always tended to be a consequence of a combination of better
science (i.e. greater knowledge), more flexible institutional
structures (to contain and apply the science), and greater
economic opportunities (to enable people to profit from
application of the science). One of the conclusions is that 1st
generation agbiotech is in danger of drawing resources away from
alternative tried and tested methods of crop improvement and has
resulted in an overly monopolistic business model. It has also
resulted in an unrealistic regulatory environment that is too
lax in places (e.g. in granting broad patent claims) and too
restrictive in others (e.g. in inhibiting the entry of new
products and companies into the marketplace).
At the end of the book I list a number of recommendations for
the future of plant breeding R&D that are meant to stimulate a
debate on the nature of crop research and the structure of the
industry as a whole.
Denis J Murphy
University of Glamorgan, United Kingdom
October 2007 |
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Plant
Breeding and Biotechnology is copyright © D.J. Murphy
2007.
Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of
relevant collective licensing agreements, no
reproduction of any part may take place without the
written permission of
Cambridge University Press |
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