Biotechnology and the Developing Countries: The Same Old Story?

Abstract

One of the more depressing thoughts that afflicts me Phoenix-like is whether or not I am in fact adding to the process of development. Will the work I am doing to affect the international transfer of biotechnology and relevant information to the developing countries help them realize an improvement in the standard of living of their people? Or, as Sanford Lakoff asks, will my work more likely result in a malaria vaccine (made possible by the application of genetic engineering techniques) that will save millions of people-only to have them face starvation? Will advances in agriculture aggravate the ongoing unsettling of populations from rural areas with all the associated miseries this implies? If and when a bioscience-based industry is established in a developing country, will the sale of its products largely benefit a few owners and corrupt officials (no doubt bought off to turn a blind eye to violations of safety codes)? Is biotechnology likely to upset social orders, thus bringing about more unrest and civil discord in individual countries?