Chapter 14 The Scientific Origins of the Green and Gene Revolutions

Abstract

The Green Revolution was a singular event in world history; because of the Green Revolution, world prices for all crops declined. The agricultural mechanization issue was also driven by intellectual property rights (i.e., the right to patent products), as was the agricultural chemical revolution. The livestock industrialization revolution sharply lowered the prices for all livestock products. The Gene Revolution (i.e., the recombinant DNA revolution) further lowered the cost of producing farm products. The Gene Revolution was based on three events. The first was the discovery that DNA (Delbrook) was the carrier of genetic information. The second was the discovery by Watson and Crick of the double helix structure of DNA. The third was the method of stable insertion of DNA into a host genome (Cohen and Boyer). The future of agricultural research depends on the capacity of countries to invent and imitate.

Citation

Evenson, R.E. (2007), "Chapter 14 The Scientific Origins of the Green and Gene Revolutions", Maskus, K.E. (Ed.) Intellectual Property, Growth and Trade (Frontiers of Economics and Globalization, Vol. 2), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 465-496. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1574-8715(07)00014-0