Inconvenient Truths: Why the Industry Left the IAASTD

Abstract

The International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD) was the biggest review ever of global agriculture. It developed different approaches for alleviating hunger and poverty, focussing on the productivity of small household farms and supporting low-tech and cost-free strategies. Not long before the final IAASTD plenary, the chemical-biotech industry announced that they leave the process in protest mainly over the Synthesis Report on Biotechnology. The following is a personal account of one of the co-authors of that report on what made the industries take this step.