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The Interface Between Trade and Technology Policies

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Agricultural Trade, Policy Reforms, and Global Food Security

Abstract

Concerns that products containing genetically modified organisms (GMOs) may be unsafe as food or animal feed, or may harm the environment, have led European countries to procrastinate on approving their production or use despite no evidence of their harm. This policy stance, which has discouraged many developing countries from adopting too, is unfortunate because modeling results show that GM crops offer welfare gains that could alleviate poverty and food insecurity directly, substantially, and relatively rapidly in countries willing to allow adoption of this new biotechnology. The stakes in this issue are very high because the prospective gains from this new technology will increase as climate change proceeds and requires adaptation by farmers to warming and to increased weather volatility and higher costs of irrigation water.

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Anderson, K. (2016). The Interface Between Trade and Technology Policies. In: Agricultural Trade, Policy Reforms, and Global Food Security. Palgrave Studies in Agricultural Economics and Food Policy. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-46925-0_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-46925-0_7

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