Food, Hunger and Technology

Abstract

This essay uses genetically modified crops as a springboard for examining the role ascribed to technology by the international institutional framework for responding to food insecurity. It argues that that food insecurity is a problem rooted in political will formation, rather than in the mechanics of food production. From this starting point, the chapter examines the failure of various global initiatives to end hunger, highlighting how these initiatives emphasized new technologies for increasing food production while giving short shrift to the thorny structural problems associated with hunger.

Keywords: hunger, food insecurity, World Food Summit, World Food Conference, Millennium Development Goals, Norman Borlaug, green revolution, genetically modified organism, GMO, technology, poverty, population, Rome Declaration, biotechnology

JEL Classification: H40, H54, I31, K10, K33, N50, O13, O19, O20, O30, Q10, Q17, Q18, R10