Outreach in Biotechnology

Monsters, Miracles, and the Politics of Genetic Engineering

A specialist in agrarian reform, Ron Herring explains why so many smart people get it wrong when it comes to growing Bt cotton in India.

5 May 2009, Oregon State University

Ronald Herring

• lecture intro by ORB director Steve Strauss
• lecture slides (pdf version)
• study guide
• streaming audio
• streaming video

Ronald Herring is a professor of government and the director of the Program on Nature and Development at Cornell University, New York. He specializes in agrarian reform, political ecology and development, and social conflicts around science and genetic engineering. He has served as a John S Knight Professor of International Relations and as the Director of the Einaudi Center for International Studies. He has also worked as a consultant to the US State Department, World Bank, UNDP, and other international organizations. He won the 2008 Dudley Seers Prize for his book “Transgenics and the Poor.”

In his Food for Thought lecture, Ron discusses how the genetic engineering of crops has become a proxy for much larger ideological and political debates. He explores the consequences of limiting this technology for poverty alleviation, global trade, and the environment.

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