The political economy of food aid in an era of agricultural biotechnology

Global Governance

Volumn 11, Issue 4, 2005, Pages 467-485

  Clapp, Jennifer ^a,b  

^a UNIVERSITY OF WATERLOO   (Canada)

^b CENTRE FOR INTERNATIONAL GOVERNANCE INNOVATION   (Canada)

Author keywords

Africa; Agricultural biotechnology; Developing countries; Food aid; Genetically modified organisms (gmos)

Indexed keywords

EID: 29544432805     PISSN: 10752846     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1163/19426720-01104005     Document Type: Review

References (92)

1. See, for example, Robert Falkner, "Regulating Biotech Trade: The Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety," International Affairs 76, no. 2 (2000);
2. Peter Newell and Ruth Mackenzie, "The 2000 Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety: Legal and Political Dimensions," Global Environmental Change 10 (2000);
3. Cristoph Bail, Robert Falkner, and Helen Marquard, eds., The Cartegena Protocol on Biosafety: Reconciling Trade in Biotechnology with Environment and Development? (London: Earthscan, 2002).
4. Peter Uvin, "Regime, Surplus and Self-Interest: The International Politics of Food Aid," International Studies Quarterly 36, no. 3 (1992): 293-312;
5. Raymond Hopkins, "Reform in the International Food Aid Regime: The Role of Consensual Knowledge," International Organization 46, no. 1 (1992): 225-264;
6. Raymond Hopkins, "The Evolution of Food Aid: Towards a Development-First Regime," in Vernan Ruttan, ed., Why Food Aid? (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993);
7. Edward Clay and Olav Stokke, eds., Food Aid and Human Security (London: Frank Cass, 2000).
8. Cheryl Christiansen, "The New Policy Environment for Food Aid: The Challenge of Sub-Saharan Africa," Food Policy 25, no. 3 (2000): 256.
9. USAID, Food Aid and Food Security Policy Paper (PN-ABU-219) (Washington, D.C.: USAID, 1995).
10. Harriet Friedmann, "The Political Economy of Food: The Rise and Fall of the Postwar International Food Order," in M. Burawoy and T. Skocpol, eds., Marxist Inquiries: Studies of Labour, Class and States, supplement to American Journal of Sociology 88 (1982): S248-286;
11. Vernan Ruttan, "The Politics of U.S. Food Aid Policy: A Historical Review," in Ruttan, Why Food Aid?
12. Mitchel Wallerstein, Food for War - Food for Peace (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1980);
13. Shlomo Reutlinger, "From 'Food Aid' to 'Aid for Food': Into the 21st Century," Food Policy 24, no. 1 (1999): 9.
14. See (on Europe), John Cathie, European Food Aid Policy (Aldershot, England: Ashgate, 1997);
15. and (on Canada), Mark Charlton, The Making of Canadian Food Aid Policy (Montreal: McGill-Queens University Press, 1992).
16. International Grains Council (IGC), IGC Annual Report (London: IGC, 2004).
17. International Wheat Council, The Food Aid Convention of the International Wheat Agreement (London: International Wheat Council, 1991).
18. Food Aid Convention, Food Aid Convention (London: International Grains Council, 1999).
19. See Christiansen, "The New Policy Environment for Food Aid."
20. See Christopher Barrett and D. Maxwell, Food Aid After Fifty Years: Recasting Its Role (London: Routledge, 2005); EU Council Regulation (ED) No. 1292/96.
21. See, for example, Edward Clay and Olav Stokke, eds., Food Aid Reconsidered: Assessing the Impact on Third World Countries (London: Frank Cass, 1991).
22. Uvin, "Regime, Surplus and Self-Interest";
23. Hopkins, "Reform in the International Food Aid Regime," and "The Evolution of Food Aid."
24. Uvin, "Regime, Surplus and Self-Interest," pp. 307-308.
25. Eric Neumayer, "Is the Allocation of Food Aid Free from Donor Interest Bias?" Journal of Development Studies 41, no. 3 (2005).
26. International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications, Preview: Global Status of Commercialized Transgenic Crops: 2003, Executive Summary No. 30, pp. 3-4, available online at www.isaaa.org.
27. See USAID, "United States and Food Assistance," Africa Humanitarian Crisis (3 July 2003), available online at www.usaid.gov/about/ africafoodcrisis/bio_answers.html#8.
28. Geoffrey Lean, "Rejected GM Food Dumped on the Poor," The Independent (London), 18 June 2000;
29. Fred Pearce, "UN Is Slipping Modified Food into Aid," New Scientist 175, no. 2361 (2003): 5.
30. Friends of the Earth International (FOEI), Playing with Hunger: The Reality Behind the Shipment of GMOs as Food Aid (Amsterdam: FOEI, April 2003), p. 5.
31. Ibid. Playing with Hunger: The Reality behind the Shipment of GMOs as Food Aid, pp. 6-7;
32. ACDI/VOCA, Genetically Modified Food: Implications for US Food Aid Programs, 2d ed. (April 2003), pp. 6-10, available online at www.acdivoca.org/acdivoca/acdiweb2.nsf/news/gmfoodsarticle.
33. Genetic Resources Action International (GRAIN) "Better Dead than GM Fed?" Seedling (October 2002).
34. For a more detailed explanation of each of these factors, see Oxfam International, "Crisis in Southern Africa," Oxfam Briefing Paper 23 (2002), p. 6.
35. WFP, Policy on Donations of Foods Derived from Biotechnology (GM/Biotech Foods), WFP/EB, 3/2002/4-C (14 October 2002), pp. 4-5.
36. Institute for the Study of International Migration, Genetically Modified Food in the Southern Africa Food Crisis of 2002-2003 (Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, 2004), pp. 16-17.
37. Jon Bennett, "Food Aid Logistics and the Southern Africa Emergency," Forced Migration Review 18, no. 5 (2003): 29.
38. The value of Zambian exports of maize in 2002 was U.S.$2.23 million, according to the FAO. FAO, FAO Statistical Database, available online at http://faostat.fao.org (accessed October 2004).
39. Rob Crilly, "Children Go Hungry as GM Food Rejected," The Herald (Glasgow), 30 October 2002, p. 12.
40. Bennett, "Food Aid Logistics and the Southern Africa Emergency," p. 29.
41. ACDI/VOCA, Genetically Modified Food, p. 9;
42. USAID "United States and Food Assistance."
43. Matt Meilen, "Who Is Getting Fed?" Seedling (April 2003), available online at www.grain.org/seedline/seed-03-04-3-en.cfm.
44. Chuck Grassley, "Salvation or Starvation? GMO Food Aid to Africa," remarks of Senator Chuck Grassley to the Congressional Economic Leadership Institute, 5 March 2003.
45. Norman Borlaug, "Science vs. Hysteria," Wall Street Journal, 22 January 2003.
46. For an overview of the technical issues involved in the dispute, see Duncan Brack, Robert Falkner, and Judith Goll, "The Next Trade War? GM Products, the Cartagena Protocol and the WTO," Royal Institute of International Affairs Briefing Paper No.8, September 2003.
47. Quoted in Charlotte Denny and Larry Elliott, "French Plan to Aid Africa Could Be Sunk by Bush," The Guardian, 23 May 2003.
48. Edward Alden, "US Beats Egypt with Trade Stick," Financial Times, 29 June 2002.
49. European Union, press release IP/03/681, 13 May 2003.
50. Ibid.
51. Africa Center for Biosafety, Earthlife Africa, Environmental Rights Action-Friends of the Earth Nigeria, Grain and SafeAge, GE Food Aid: Africa Denied Choice Once Again? 4 May 2004.
52. Heike Baumüller, "Domestic Import Regulations for Genetically Modified Organisms and Their Compatibility with WTO Rules," Trade Knowledge Network (Winnepeg: International Institute for Sustainable Development; Geneva: International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development, 2003), pp. 13-15, available online at www.tradeknowledgenetwork.org/pdf/tkn_domestic_ regs.pdf.
53. FOEI, Playing with Hunger, p. 9.
54. Baumüller, "Domestic Import Regulations for Genetically Modified Organisms," p. 14.
55. For a history and analysis of these negotiations, see Bail, Falkner, and Marquard, The Cartegena Protocol on Biosafety;
56. Falkner, "Regulating Biotech Trade";
57. Newell and MacKenzie, "The 2000 Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety."
58. Text of the Cartegena Protocol on Biosafety.
59. Codex Alimentarius Commission, Report of the Fourth Session of the Ad Hoc Intergovernmental Task Force of Foods Derived from Biotechnology, ALINORM 02/34A (Rome: FAO and WHO, 2003).
60. WFP, Policy on Donations of Foods Derived from Biotechnology (GMI Biotech Foods), p. 5.
61. WFP, Policy on Donations of Foods Derived from Biotechnology, WFP/EB.A/2003/5-OB/Rev.1 (2003).
62. Aseem Prakash and Kelly Kollman, "Biopolitics in the EU and the U.S.: A Race to the Bottom or Convergence to the Top?" International Studies Quarterly 47, no. 4 (2003): 625.
63. Robert Paarlberg, "The Global Food Fight," Foreign Affairs 79, no. 3 (2000): 24-38.
64. Grant Isaac and William Kerr, "Genetically Modified Organisms at the World Trade Organization: A Harvest of Trouble," Journal of World Trade 37, no. 6: 1086-1090;
65. Prakash and Kollman, "Biopolitics in the EU and the U.S.," p. 626.
66. Grassley, "Salvation or Starvation?"
67. Michael Dynes, "Africa Torn Between GM Aid and Starvation," The Times (London), 6 August 2002, p. 12.
68. Rory Carroll, "Zambia Slams Door Shut on GM Food Relief," The Guardian (London), 30 October 2002;
69. Institute for the Study of International Migration, Genetically Modified Food in the Southern Africa Food Crisis of 2002-2003, p. 20.
70. Polly Diven, "The Domestic Determinants of US Food Aid Policy," Food Policy 26, no. 5 (2001): 471.
71. Christiansen, "The New Policy Environment for Food Aid," p. 257.
72. Brack, Faulkner, and Goll, "The Next Trade War?" p. 3.
73. Katrin Dauenhauer, "Health: Africans Challenge Bush Claim That GM Food Is Good for Them," SUNS: South-North Development Monitor, No. 5368 (23 June 2003).
74. WFP official Richard Lee, quoted in "Greenpeace Statement on the Southern African Food Crisis," Greenpeace UK, November 2002.
75. National Association of Wheat Growers (NAWG), "Letter to Robert Zoellick," portions reprinted in the NAWG Weekly Newsletter, 13 February 2004, available online at www.wheatworld.org.
76. Oxfam America, US Export Credits: Denials and Double Standards (Washington, D.C.: Oxfam, 2003), p. 8.
77. Declan Walsh, "America Finds Ready Market for GM Food-The Hungry," The Independent (London), 30 March, 2000, p. 18.
78. Katherine Stapp, "Biotech Boom Linked to Development Dollars, Say Critics," SUNS (3 December 2003).
79. Section 1543A of the Farm Bill, cited in ACDI/VOCA, Genetically Modified Food: Implications for US Food Aid Programs, p. 5.
80. "GM Food Aid," The Ecologist 33, no. 2 (March 2003), p. 46.
81. African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF), "Rationale and Design of the AATF" (June 2002), available online at www.aftechfound.org/ rationale.php.
82. Agricultural Biotechnology Support Project II (ABSPII), "Scope and Activities" (2004), available online at www.absp2.cornell.edu/whatisabsp2.
83. Meilen, "Who Is Getting Fed?"
84. Devlin Kuyek, "Past Predicts the Future - GM Crops and African Farmers," Seedling (October 2002), available online at www.grain.org/ seedling/seed-02-10-3-en.cfm;
85. Mellen, "Who Is Getting Fed?"
86. Dominic Glover, "GMOs and the Politics of International Trade," Democratising Biotechnology: Genetically Modified Crops in Developing Countries Briefing Series, Briefing 5 (Brighton, England: Institute of Development Studies, 2003);
87. Brewster Kneen, Farmageddon (Gabriola, B.C.: New Society, 1999);
88. Kuyek, "Past Predicts the Future;"
89. Mellen, "Who Is Getting Fed?"
90. Jennifer Clapp, "WTO Agricultural Trade Battles and Food Aid," Third World Quarterly 25, no. 8 (2004).
91. Institute for the Study of International Migration, Genetically Modified Food in the Southern Africa Food Crisis of 2002-2003, pp. 18-19.
92. An exception to this is Barrett and Maxwell, Food Aid After Fifty Years, who incorporate some discussion of GMOs.