Sustaining a Revolution: A Policy Strategy for Crop Engineering

Genetically modified (GM) foods hold enormous economic, social, and nutritional potential but have also ignited strong opposition. Whether the promise of these agricultural innovations will ultimately be realized or derailed depends on the policies adopted by governments and firms in the future. This study outlines a long-term strategy for crop engineering and its implications for US policy. It implores the US and European governments not to lock horns in a formal trade dispute through the World Trade Organization over access to European markets for US-grown and manufactured GM foods. Instead, the authors argue, the United States should support China and other countries that are more likely to advance the development of modified foods. The United States should also reinvigorate its investment in public agricultural research targeted to help the poorest farmers and consumers and should lead efforts to create new mechanisms for sharing the intellectual property rights essential to realizing this new technology’s full potential.