In this much-needed book, an emergent empirical literature allows scholars in disciplines ranging from micro-biology to economics to assess the potential effects of transgenic organisms on poverty.

Ronald Herring is Professor of Political Economy in the Department of Government at Cornell University, where he has been Director of the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies, the John S. Knight Professor of International Relations, Chair of the Department of Government and Acting Director of Cornell's South Asia Program. Before Cornell, he was Professor of political science at Northwestern University and taught briefly at the Universities of Chicago, Texas, Washington, and Wisconsin. Herring has been Editor of Comparative Political Studies, and remains on its editorial board, as on the boards of Contemporary South Asia, Critical Asian Studies, Journal of Development Studies and India Review. His earliest academic interests were with land relations; Land to the Tiller: The Political Economy of Agrarian Reform in South Asia (Yale University Press/Oxford University Press) won the Edgar Graham Prize (London l986). He has recently explored connections between economic development and ethnicity -- Carrots, Sticks and Ethnic Conflict: Rethinking Development Assistance (University of Michigan Press, edited with Milton Esman). Herring is currently Director/Convener of the Program on Development, Governance and Nature at Cornell University.

1. The Genomics Revolution and Development Studies 2. Plant Breeding and Poverty From GR to GM 3. The Impact of Agricultural Biotechnology on Yields, Risks and Biodiversity in Developing Countries 4. The Potential of Genetically Modified Food Crops to Improve Human Nutrition and Health in Developing Countries 5. Considerations on the Use of Transgenic Crops for Insect Control 6. Transgenic Crops 7. Stealth Seeds 8. Loose Seeds, Official Seeds, and Risk 9. Identity Preservation, Market Effects and Developing Countries 10. Agroecological Alternatives 11. Supplying Crop Biotechnology to the Poor