IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/agrhuv/v15y1998i1p43-56.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Transgenic crops: Engineering a more sustainable agriculture?

Author

Listed:
  • Bryan Hubbell
  • Rick Welsh

Abstract

Transgenic crops currently available foruse potentially provide environmental benefits, suchas reduction in insecticide use and substitution ofless toxic for more toxic herbicides. These benefitsare contingent on a host of factors, such as thepotential for development of resistant pests,out-crossing to weedy relatives, and transgenic cropmanagement regimes. Three scenarios are used toexamine the potential sustainability of transgeniccrop technologies. These scenarios demonstrate thatexisting transgenic varieties, while potentiallyimproving the sustainability of agriculture relativeto existing chemical based production systems, fail inenabling a fully sustainable agriculture. Genetictraits that have a higher potential for promoting asustainable agriculture have been precluded fromdevelopment for a number of reasons. These include thelack of EPA and USDA regulatory policies thatexplicitly promote sustainable traits; the structureof the agricultural biotechnology industry, which isdominated by agricultural chemical companies; andpatent law and industry policies that proscribe farmhouseholds from saving transgenic seed and tailoringtransgenic crops to their local environmentalconditions – ecological, social, and economic. Copyright Kluwer Academic Publishers 1998

Suggested Citation

  • Bryan Hubbell & Rick Welsh, 1998. "Transgenic crops: Engineering a more sustainable agriculture?," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 15(1), pages 43-56, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:agrhuv:v:15:y:1998:i:1:p:43-56
    DOI: 10.1023/A:1007437922114
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1023/A:1007437922114
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1023/A:1007437922114?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. David Feeny & Susan Hanna & Arthur F. McEvoy, 1996. "Questioning the Assumptions of the "Tragedy of the Commons" Model of Fisheries," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 72(2), pages 187-205.
    2. Lohr, Luanne & Carter, Harold O. & Logan, Samuel H., 1986. "Agricultural Biotechnology Research: An Overview," Agricultural Issues Center (AIC) Working Papers 228793, University of California, Davis, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics.
    3. Richard E. Just & Darrell L. Hueth, 1993. "Multimarket Exploitation: The Case of Biotechnology and Chemicals," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 75(4), pages 936-945.
    4. Stephen Clark, J. & Carlson, Gerald A., 1990. "Testing for common versus private property: The case of pesticide resistance," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 19(1), pages 45-60, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. David E. Ervin & Leland L. Glenna & Raymond A. Jussaume, 2011. "The Theory and Practice of Genetically Engineered Crops and Agricultural Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 3(6), pages 1-28, June.
    2. Batie, Sandra S. & Ervin, David E., 2000. "Transgenic Crops And The Environment: Missing Markets And Public Role," Staff Paper Series 11556, Michigan State University, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics.
    3. Anne Bellows & Michael Hamm, 2001. "Local autonomy and sustainable development: Testing import substitution in more localized food systems," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 18(3), pages 271-284, September.
    4. Vanloqueren, Gaëtan & Baret, Philippe V., 2009. "How agricultural research systems shape a technological regime that develops genetic engineering but locks out agroecological innovations," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(6), pages 971-983, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Batie, Sandra S. & Ervin, David E., 2000. "Transgenic Crops And The Environment: Missing Markets And Public Role," Staff Paper Series 11556, Michigan State University, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics.
    2. Silvia Secchi & Terrance M. Hurley & Bruce A. Babcock & Richard L. Hellmich, 2006. "Managing European Corn Borer Resistance to Bt Corn with Dynamic Refuges," Natural Resource Management and Policy, in: Richard E. Just & Julian M. Alston & David Zilberman (ed.), Regulating Agricultural Biotechnology: Economics and Policy, chapter 0, pages 559-577, Springer.
    3. Tarui, Nori & Mason, Charles F. & Polasky, Stephen & Ellis, Greg, 2008. "Cooperation in the commons with unobservable actions," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 55(1), pages 37-51, January.
    4. Demont, Matty & Tollens, Eric, 1999. "The Economics Of Agricultural Biotechnology: Historical And Analytical Framework," Working Papers 31845, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Centre for Agricultural and Food Economics.
    5. Rouba Al-Fattal, 2009. "The Tragedy of the Commons: Institutions and Fisheries Management at the Local and EU Levels," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(4), pages 537-547.
    6. Jeremy Foltz & Bradford Barham & Kwansoo Kim, 2000. "Universities and agricultural biotechnology patent production," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 16(1), pages 82-95.
    7. Frisvold, George B. & Agnew, G. Ken & Baker, Paul, 2002. "Biorational Insecticide Adoption And Conventional Insecticide Use: A Simultaneous, Limited Dependent Variable Model," 2002 Annual meeting, July 28-31, Long Beach, CA 19779, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    8. Kazmierczak, Richard F., Jr. & Paxton, Kenneth W., 1997. "Technical Change And New Directions For Cotton Production," Station Bulletins 31683, Louisiana State University, Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness.
    9. Richard O. Zerbe & Howard E. McCurdy, 1999. "The failure of market failure," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 18(4), pages 558-578.
    10. Lorelei Crisologo-Mendoza; & Dirk Van de gaer, 1997. "Population Growth and Customary Law on Land: The Case of Cordillera Villages in the Philippines," Economics Department Working Paper Series n761197, Department of Economics, National University of Ireland - Maynooth.
    11. Giannakas, Konstantinos, 2001. "The economics of intellectual property rights under imperfect enforcement: developing countries, biotechnology, and the TRIPs agreement," EPTD discussion papers 80, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    12. Bimonte, Salvatore, 2008. "The "tragedy of tourism resources" as the outcome of a strategic game: A new analytical framework," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(3), pages 457-464, October.
    13. Alexander, Corinne E. & Goodhue, Rachael E., 1999. "Production Systems Competition And The Pricing Of Innovations: An Application To Biotechnology And Seed Corn," 1999 Annual meeting, August 8-11, Nashville, TN 21646, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    14. Terrance Hurley & Silvia Secchi & Bruce Babcock & Richard Hellmich, 2002. "Managing the Risk of European Corn Borer Resistance to Bt Corn," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 22(4), pages 537-558, August.
    15. Gray, Richard S. & Malla, Stavroula & Tran, Kien C., 2005. "Pecuniary, Non-Pecuniary, and Downstream Research Spillovers: The Case of Canola," 2005 International Congress, August 23-27, 2005, Copenhagen, Denmark 24776, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    16. Gardner, Justin G. & Nehring, Richard F. & Nelson, Carl H., 2008. "Genetically Modified Crops, an Input Distance Function Approach," 2008 Annual Meeting, February 2-6, 2008, Dallas, Texas 6800, Southern Agricultural Economics Association.
    17. Rocco Palumbo, 2017. "Toward a new conceptualization of health care services to inspire public health. Public national health service as a “common pool of resources”," International Review on Public and Nonprofit Marketing, Springer;International Association of Public and Non-Profit Marketing, vol. 14(3), pages 271-287, September.
    18. repec:lic:licosd:27611 is not listed on IDEAS
    19. Burton, Peter S., 2003. "Community enforcement of fisheries effort restrictions," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 45(2, Supple), pages 474-491, March.
    20. Yang, Zhenzeng, 2013. "Private Property Rights and Pollution in Emerging Market Economies," MPRA Paper 48717, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    21. Jeff Dayton-Johnson & Pranab Bardhan, 2002. "Inequality And Conservation On The Local Commons: A Theoretical Exercise," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 112(481), pages 577-602, July.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:agrhuv:v:15:y:1998:i:1:p:43-56. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.