xliv Sustainable Agriculture and Food
labour markets, improved access to land through land reform, or changed social
norms that encourage greater equity and sharing. The first of these seems more likely
than the others – though as noted above, some sustainable agriculture applications
are favoured by farm families precisely because they reduce labour requirements.
There is some evidence that social capital formation can result in new equitable
arrangements within communities. Landless families, for example, have been given
new opportunities to join farmers’ groups in western and central Kenya. Such changes
cannot be directly attributed to sustainable agriculture – rather it is due to changes
in values and norms arising from new configurations of local social capital.
Is There a Place for Genetic Modification?
Only a few years after the development of the first genetically modified crops for
agriculture, opinions on benefits and risk remain sharply divided. Some argue that
genetically modified organisms are safe and essential for world progress; others
state they are not needed, and hold too many risks. The first group believes that
media manipulation and scaremongering are limiting useful technologies; the sec-
ond that scientists, private companies and regulators are understating hazards for
the sake of economic returns.
Neither view is entirely correct, for one simple reason. Genetically modified
organisms are not a single, simple technology (Pretty, 2001; GM Science Review,
2003; Nuffield Council on Bioethics, 2004). Each product brings different poten-
tial benefits for different stakeholders; each poses different environmental and
health risks. It is, therefore, useful to distinguish between different generations of
genetically modified technologies. The first generation technologies came into
commercial use in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and have tended not to bring
distinct consumer benefits, one reason why there is so much current public oppo-
sition. The realization of promised benefits to farmers and the environment has
only been patchy. First generation technologies include herbicide-tolerant crops,
insect-resistant crops, long-life tomatoes, bacteria in containment for the produc-
tion of cheese and washing-powder enzymes, and flowers with amended colour.
The second generation technologies comprise those already developed and
tested, but not yet commercially released on a large scale, either because of uncer-
tainties over the stability of the technology itself, or over concerns for potential
environmental risks. Some of these applications are likely to bring more public and
consumer benefits, and include a range of medical applications. These include
viral resistance in rice, cassava, papaya, sweet potatoes, peppers; nematode resist-
ance in various cereal and other crops, such as banana and potato; frost tolerance
in strawberry, B.t. clover, trees with reduced lignin, vitamin A rice and bio-pharming
with crops and animals for pharmaceuticals.
The third generation technologies are those that are still far from market, but
generally require a better understanding of whole gene complexes that control