Syllabus - 2008
7 Apr 08
Context and History of GM
QUIZ
On these assignments, see note
- Charles 2001, Lords of the Harvest
- DeVries & Toenniessen on defining biotechnology (not the excerpt from p. 73)
- optional: Paarlberg & Pray 2007, Political Actors on the Landscape; Source Watch and entry on Ctr Cons Freedom
Future of Food video (note)
Biology of GM
1/31
- Recommended: Glick & Pasternak, DNA-RNA-Protein Synthesis (Eres)
- Recommended: Bach & Khan 2004 Taming Plastids, on chloroplast transformation
Theory and Politics of Designing Plants
quiz 1
7 pm
Kloppenburg 2005, First the Seed, chaps 1-2, or chaps 1-7, 10, 11 if this is your optional book.
- Sen 1981, chapter 1 from Poverty and Famine
- Optional: Sen 1993, Economics of Life & Death, pp. 40-42; Stone, Malthusianism
Food quality (ppt)
- Schlosser 2001, Food Product Design (from Fast Food Nation)
- NYT 2003, The Food Simulator
Gene Flow and the Politics of Studying It; GM and the Corporate University
- skim: Quist & Chapela 2001, original paper (also as pdf )
- skim: Quist & Chapela 2002, follow-up including editorial note
- skim: Snow et al. 2003, Bt Transgene...
- skim: Ortiz-Garcia et al. 2005, Absence of detectable transgenes...
("skim" means get the main points but you are not responsible for technical details beyond what we discuss in class)
- optional: Snow 2003, Unnatural selection
- Can the "terminator" GURT spread? (Vandana thinks so...)
Scientific politics, public discourse, and university-industry relations (ppt)
Universities and Industry
- Etzkowitz & Leyesdorff 1997 Universities in the global knowledge economy excerpt
optional: Stein 2004, Buying In or Selling Out: The Commercialization of the American Research University
The Chapela Case
- Caught in the maize at Berkeley
- optional: Chapela 2006 (Scandal reveals political greed)
- optional: Berkeley webcast on scientific dissent
- optional: index to articles on Chapela
Chapela Spin
- skim: Guardian 2002, Mexican govn findings and on Nature's handling of paper
- CBI 2002, industry view of the Nature paper
- Monbiot 2002, Fake Persuaders (including the CFFAR site & Smetacek petition)
- AP 2002, article on "corporate meddling in academia"
- optional: WP article on internet shills and meat puppets
Sunflowers Spin
- Nature story on blocking Snow's research
- Stewart 2003, Press Before Paper or pdf
- Nature summary of Stewart study or pdf
- optional: Syngenta and Hayes
- Soleri et al. 2006, Transgenic Crops and Crop
Varietal Diversity: The Case of Maize in Mexico
- optional: Raven 2005, Transgenes in Mexican maize: desirability of inevitability?
Midterm and Break
International GMO's: Intellectual Property, WTO, and Biotech for the Poor
3/18 - 3/20
IP - domestic (ppt)
MIT Human Gene Patents
(to search on gene "Xa21", type "Xa21[sym]" in gene box)
- Golden 2001 ( Biotechnology, Technology Policy, and Patentability, pt I)
- Pringle 2003:85-93 (from Food Inc.)
- look at patent #5,352,605 at USPTO
Recommended:
- Noonan 2004 (When Words Fail)
- Stone 2005, A Science of the Gray, pp. 204-208
- Jensen & Murray 2005, Intellectual Property Landscape of the Human Genome
IP - international:
WTO and TRIPS (ppt)
- Crucible II Group 2000 (Seeding Solutions, pp. 86-108)
- Stock and Johnston 2001 on Battle in Seattle
Recommended
- WIRED: Geography of the Genome
- McMichael 2000, Global Food Politics (Eres)
- Lessig 2004, Taste of Our Own Poison
- Cohen 2005, Poorer nations turn to public GM crops
quiz 2
WTO and Europe
Biotech and the Third World
- Recommended: abstracts on increased starch (Ihemere et al. 2006) and virus resistance (Chellappan et al. 2004)
Road trip
1:07 sharp in front of Brookings
Africa; China; South America
(ppt)
- BBC 2002, Food Crisis Worsens in Southern Africa
- Toronto Star 2002, Millions Dying (reposted on the CBI website)
- Greenpeace 2002, USAID and GM Food Aid (pdf)
- CS Monitor 2003 on the Zambian famine that wasn't
- Smale et al. 2006, Bales and Balances -- section on So. Africa
- Smale et al. 2006, Bales and Balances -- section on China
Recommended:
- Georgetown study: Genetically Modified Food in the Southern Africa Food Crisis of 2002-2003
- NYT 2004 on GM ban in Angola
- Wash Post 2003 on efforts to ease famine in Africa
- Leonard 2007, Ganesh and Brahma bow to a new god
Recommended:
- Stone 2007, Agricultural Deskilling and the Spread of Genetically Modified Cotton in Warangal
- Stone 2007, Birth and Death of Traditional Knowledge
- Stone 2005, A Science of the Gray: Malthus, Marx, and the Ethics of Studying Crop Biotechnology
Alternative Foods and Agricultures
-Martineau 2001, First Fruit pp. 60-109 (or all if this is your optional book ) (note)
- Eichenwald et al. 2001, Biotechnology Food: From the Lab to a Debacle
Recommended:
- Federal Register on Coordinated Framework (Vol 51, June 26, 1986, just pp. 23302-23310.
- Federal Register on Food Policy (Vol 57, May 29, 1992, pp. 22984-23005.)
Hey, we have to do it:
Final exam (cumulative but somewhat greater emphasis on material after the mini-midterm)