Bio-Agricultural Geographies: On the Relationship between Technology, Society, and Poverty

Keywords: GM crops, agriculture, technology, poverty, neo-Malthusian, technological determinism
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Tuesday
Session Start / End Time: 3/1/2022 09:40 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 3/1/2022 11:00 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 34

Abstract

Over the past century, scientific plant breeding has developed incrementally by deploying sophisticated techniques in plant biotechnology. Such advancements enabled the alteration of plant DNA to produce genetically modified (GM) crops. Since 1999, there has been a surge of interest in the adoption of GM crops in the Global South. Proponents have heralded the increase in productivity to farmers and consequently the alleviation of hunger in growing populations. Opponents have depicted the dangers to farmers’ sovereignty and the environment. These developments have given rise to a globally contentious politics and unprecedented policy dilemmas. The author examines the widely held mantra that improvements in farming technologies, such as GM crops, reduce poverty among small-scale resource-poor farmers and other low-wage farm workers in developing countries. I provide a brief review of the recent literature evaluating both theory and evidence of the positive and negative effects that GM crops have on the world’s poor. In so doing, I raise important issues about the relationship between technology (productive forces) and society (social relations of production), arguing that the literature, on the one hand, advocates neo-Malthusian and technologically determinist perspectives, while on the other hand, undermines the underlying social (class) relations. Based on this account, the challenge facing developing countries is not simply the advancement, access, and proper use of farming technologies, but their social orientation and class-differential impact more specifically, and the societal transformation that ensures the full utilization of technology for the benefit of humanity more generally.