Home / Books / Seeds and Sovereignty

Seeds and Sovereignty

Debate Over the Use and Control of Plant Genetic Resources

Cover image coming soon cover image

Book

Pages: 368

Published: June 1988

Editor: Jack R. Kloppenburg

Contributors: Jack R. Kloppenburg, Otto H. Frankel, Lucile H. Brockway, H. Garrison Wilkes, Norman Myers, Thomas R. Cox, Thomas J. Orton, Charles F. Murphy, William L. Brown, M. S. Swaminathan, Robert Grossman, David Wood, Roger Sedjo, Daniel M. Goldstein, John H. Barton, Jack R. Harlan, Daniel Lee Kleinman, J. Paul Murphy, Major M. Goodman, and Eric Christensen

Seeds for economically important crops are big business indeed. As large seed companies continue to improve their product in various ways, they make use of the original gene pools of these plants, often located in tropical and subtropical areas of the world. With increasing recognition that plant germplasm is an important raw material, highly charged international disputes have developed over the exchange and use of this material, adding another point of contention between poor nations and the manufacturing wealthier ones.
Twenty experts from several nations, representing both the natural and social sciences, consider the historical background, the issue of patent rights as applied to plant germplasm, the nature of global genetic interdependence, the internationalization of the seed industry, the implications of biotechnology on genetic resources, the Third World attitude toward the debate, and the viewpoints of the International Agricultural Research Centers.

Praise

This book will be fundamental for an understanding of the subject of plant germplasm on a world basis" - Peter Raven, Director, Missouri Botanical Garden

Buy

Availability: Loading...

Price: Loading...

Request a desk or exam copy

Information

Table Of Contents Rights Additional Information

Table Of Contents

Back to Top
Abbreviations viii

Preface: Plant Genetic Resources: The Common Bowl / Jack R. Kloppenburg Jr. and Daniel Lee Kleinman 1

I. Introduction

1. Genetic Resources: Evolutionary and Social Responsibilities / Otto H. Frankel 19

II. Historical Perspectives and the Contemporary Context

2. Plant Science and Colonial Expansion: The Botanical Chess Game / Lucile H. Brockway 49

3. Plant Genetic Resources Over Ten Thousand Years: From a Handful of Seed to the Crop-Specific Mega-Genebanks / H. Garrison Wilkes 67

4. Draining the Gene Pool: The Causes, Course, and Consequences of Genetic Erosion / Norman Myers 90

5. The Contribution of Exotic Germplasm to American Agriculture / Thomas S. Cox, J. Paul Murphy, and Major M. Goodman 114

6. New Technologies and the Enhancement of Plant Germplasm Diversity / Thomas J. Orton 145

III. Germplasm and Geopolitics

7. Seeds of Controversy: National Property versus Common Heritage / Jack R. Kloppenburg Jr. and Daniel Lee Kleinman 173

8. Institutional Responsibility of the National Plant Germplasm System / Charles F. Murphy 204

9. Plant Genetic Resources: A View from the Seed Industry / William L. Brown 218

10. Seeds and Property Rights: A View from the CGIAR System / M. S. Swaminathan 231

11. Equalizing the Flow: Institutional Restructuring of Germplasm Exchange / Robert Grossman 255

12. Crop Germplasm: Common Heritage or Farmers' Heritage? / David Wood 274

IV. Restructuring the Germplasm System

13. Property Rights and the Protection of Plant Genetic Resources / Roger A. Sedjo 293

14. Molecular Biology and the Protection of Germplasm: A Matter of National Security / Daniel J. Goldstein 315

15. Diversity Compensation Systems: Ways to Compensate Developing Nations for Providing Genetic Materials / John H. Barton and Eric Christensen 338

16. Seeds and Sovereignty: An Epilogue / Jack R. Harlan 356

Index 363

Rights

Back to Top

Sales/Territorial Rights: World

Rights and licensing

Additional Information

Back to Top
Hardcover ISBN: 978-0-8223-0756-3 / eISBN: 978-0-8223-9973-5 /