This book is about an issue of our times which does not yet get the attention that it deserves - the growing dominance of huge transnational corporations over every aspect of our lives from executive super-pay to private sector pension funds. The authors of this book look at one particular kind of modern corporation - the hi-tech agro-chemical and genetic engineering companies that now dominate the food chain. In this richly detailed account, they show how a handful of companies have: - Accelerated the industrialization of agriculture and the integration of the global economy in order to gain an alarming control over the food chain. - Penetrated the previously independent world of scholarly research both in universities and the specialized international agricultural research centres in CGIAR. - Manipulated public opinion, including distorting our understanding of key environmental processes and issues. - Unduly influenced regulatory agencies and national governments. - Turned international bodies like the WTO, the World Bank, and the FAO into instruments devising rules and policies primarily of benefit to corporate growth and corporate profit. - And now are further expanding by bullying the governments and farmers of the developing countries to accept their technologies and products. Whether you are interested in the environment, democracy, or the development of countries in the South, the information and analysis contained in this book will prove both disturbing and empowering.

Love Canal. We hear these words and quickly recoil, remembering a community poisoned by toxic waste. Twenty years after the incident, Allan Mazur reexamines the circumstances that made this upstate New York neighborhood synonymous with ecological catastrophe and triggered federal "Superfund" legislation to clean up the nation's thousands of hazardous waste sites. But is there only one true story of Love Canal? Borrowing the multi-viewpoint technique of the classic Japanese film Rashomon, Mazur's book reveals that there are many--often conflicting versions of what occurred at Love Canal. Hooker Chemical Company, which deposited the toxic wastes, explains why it subsequently donated the dump as the site for a new school. Lois Gibbs, whose son attended the school, tells of organizing the community to fight both the chemical threat and the uncaring state bureaucracy. Then there is the story of David Axelrod, New York's embattled commissioner of health, at odds with the homeowners over their assessment of the hazards and the proper extent of the state's response. We also hear from Michael Brown, the young reporter who developed the story in the Niagara Gazette and eventually brought the problem of toxic waste to national attention. If A Hazardous Inquiry succeeded only in making us understand why one version of the events at Love Canal gained precedence over all others, it would be invaluable to policy makers, journalists, scientists, environmentalists, lawyers, and to citizens caught up in technical controversies that get played out (for better or worse) in the public arena. But the book moves beyond that to evaluate and reconcile the conflicting accounts of Love Canal, giving us a fuller, if more complex, picture than ever before. Through gripping personal tales, A Hazardous Inquiry tells how politics and journalism and epidemiology sometimes mesh, but often clash, when confronting a potential community disaster.

Professor van den Bosch of the University of California was one of the developers of Integrated Pest Management - the use of biological controls, improved pest knowledge and observation, and judicious application of chemicals only when absolutely necessary. His research often suggested that less or no pesticides should be applied, which made him the target of both open and clandestine attack from industry and government figures. In protest, he wrote this passionate account of what Ecology called 'the ultimate social disaster of: evolving pesticide-resistant insects, the destruction of their natural predators and parasites, emergent populations of new insect pests, downstream water pollution, atmospheric pollution, the 'accidental' killing of wildlife and people, and the bankruptcies of indigenous and small farmers.' As a new Introduction to this edition recounts, some lessening of dangerous overreliance on massive pesticide applications has been achieved since van den Bosch published this book in 1978 - partly as a result of its influence. But the structural problems he described remain. This book has thus become a classic, along with Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring".

This groundbreaking book is the first comparative analysis of the relative strengths of global bioregions. Growth Cultures investigates the rapidly growing phenomena of biotechnology and sets this study within a knowledge economy context. Philip Cooke proposes a new knowledge-focused theoretical framework, 'the New Global Bioeconomy', against which to test empirical characteristics of biotechnology. In this timely volume, Cooke unifies concepts from the sociology of science, economic sociology and evolutionary economic geography to focus on the problems and prospects for policy agencies worldwide trying to build 'biotechnology clusters'. He develops a superior policy approach of thinking in terms of platforms that integrate proximities and pipelines, which will be of significant interest for the scientific and technological communities as well as economic development policy communities. Growth Cultures will make fascinating reading for students, policy makers and researchers across management and business studies, innovation and knowledge studies, sociology, science and technology policy, applied economics, development studies and regional science.

Few scientific developments have given rise to as much controversy as biotechnology. Numerous groups are united in their opposition, expressing concern over environmental and health risks, impacts on rural livelihoods, the economic dominance of multinational companies and the ethical implications of crossing species boundaries. Among the supporters of the technology are those that believe in its potential to enhance food security, further economic development, increase productivity and reduce environmental pressures. As a result, countries - and sectors within countries - find themselves at odds with each other while potential opportunities for development offered by the use of biotechnology are seized or missed, and related risks go unmanaged. This book, a unique interdisciplinary collection of perspectives from the developing world, examines the ongoing debate. Writing for the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development, leading experts address issues such as diffusion of technology, intellectual property rights, the Cartagena Protocol, impacts of international trade, capacity building and biotechnology research and regulation. With the most recent and relevant examples from around the world, Trading in Genes offers the reader a single-volume overview of the connections between biotechnology, trade and sustainability that is both wide-ranging and thorough

Democratizing Technology provides a much-needed fresh perspective on the regulation of chemicals, and an important contribution to green thinking about technology.Caroline Lucas, Green Party MEP. This book is an excellent critique of the current risk-based approach to technology. By exploring the philosophical underpinnings and the practical applications of current policy on science and technology, Chapman exposes the serious flaws in allowing economic considerations to dominate the agenda in this area. Her proposals for reform are expertly constructed and deserve urgent and serious consideration by policy-makers.Dr Stuart Parkinson, Executive Director, Scientists for Global Responsibility. In this important book Anne Chapman argues that decisions about technology should answer a republican question: what kind of public world should we create through technology? Democratizing Technology deserves to be read widely. John ONeill, Professor of Political Economy, University of Manchester, UK A welcome addition to the new, more empirical and applied literature in philosophy of technology. This book will be essential reading for a variety of scholars and for the general reader intent on understanding, and criticizing, our chemically made world.Andrew Light, Interim Director, Program on the Environment, University of Washington, US What is technology? How do humans use it to build and modify the world? What are the relationships between technology, science, economics and democratic governance? What, if any, are our ethical and political responsibilities and choices in how we develop, deploy and control technology in democratic states? Democratizing Technology sets out to answer these questions. Focusing on the most widespread and pervasive technology - chemicals - this groundbreaking volume peels apart the critical technology debate to look at the relationship between humans, technology and the biological world. Attention is given to the immensely important new regulations, REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and restriction of Chemicals), the EUs largest ever legal framework, discussing the problems that are likely to occur in REACHs reliance on risk assessment methods and suggesting an alternative way forward for the regulation of chemicals. Providing much-needed clarity and insight into the heart of key debates in science and technology, risk analysis and mitigation, and domestic and international law, this volume arrives as a breath of fresh air.

Sustaining the new bioeconomy requires a global biotechnology governance regime to bring a large number of developing countries into the global trading system. Failure to do so will create a "genetic divide" among countries and is likely to intensify public opposition to biotechnology. This unique interdisciplinary collection of perspectives from the developing world on the debates over the relationships between biotechnology, biosafety, sustainable development and trade seeks to bridge the gap between the different areas of regulatory activities and academic research, and between the various stakeholders in the debate. Leading experts, writing for the influential International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development, examine: the risks and opportunities of biotechnology; biosafety; intellectual property rights and related issues of access to genetic resources, benefit-sharing and traditional knowledge; biotechnological development; capacity building; the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety; relevant WTO provisions; and developing countries' options in the WTO context.

This book was written with aim of providing some insights into the process of the buyout of Exxon Chemicals--the first such buyout in Pakistan's corporate history. It also tells the story of one person's endeavor to make his vision a reality. The man who spearheaded the buyout is Shaukat Raza Mirza. In this book, we are gripped by corporate drama as the story of the buyout unfolds. Shaukat's primary role is central, as he relates the discussions, decisions, and challenges faced.