The Gene Revolution

* With sixty countries now in the GM race, the rising Gene Revolution in agriculture is overtaking the Green Revolution of the 1960s and '70s * The first assessment of both the GM reality in China, India, Brazil, South Africa, Argentina, the US and the EU and the consequences of GM crops for billions of people as the monetary and technological divide between rich and poor widens The high-yield selective breeding of the Green Revolution of the 1960s and '70s is now being overtaken by the Gene Revolution--the development and spread of GM crops across the world. With over ninety million hectares already under cultivation and sixty countries conducting research, GM is reviled by some as a vast Pandora's Box and corporate sell-out, while hailed by others as the necessary technological solution to stagnating agricultural output, ballooning populations, climate change and drought. Sandwiched in between are developing and transitional countries where the need to feed vast populations and to compete against the US in international markets are compelling reasons to get on the GM bandwagon. This is the first book to bridge the gap between the naysayers and cheerleaders, and to provide a penetrating examination of the realities, complexities, benefits and pitfalls of GM adoption in developing countries that are desperately fighting poverty while trying to stay afloat in the hyper-competitive global economy.