Food for Africa

The life and work of a scientist in GM crops

J. Thomson (Autor)

Buch | Softcover

156 Seiten

2013
University of Cape Town Press (Verlag)
978-1-920499-81-5 (ISBN)

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She has addressed the world's leaders at the UN. She has sat in the hot seat at the World Economic Forum in Davos persuading economists that genetically modified food is the answer to food security in Africa. She has faced vitriolic activists on television and explained the facts and fallacies of genetic engineering.

An advisor to world leaders and economists on genetically modified food as the answer to food security in Africa, Jennifer Thomson traces through anecdote and science the development of a hotly contended area of research, from the dawn of genetic engineering in the USA in 1974, through the early stages of its uptake in South Africa to the current situation in which approximately 80% of maize in South Africa is genetically modified for drought resistance. Through her own story of how she came to choose GM as a career and her path-breaking involvement in the development of GM research, she describes the spread of this technology into other parts of Africa and her venture into unknown territory to develop crops resistant to drought, insects and viruses, and looks to a future in which staple crops may be grown in difficult conditions by smallholder farmers and help Africans achieve food security.

Professor Jennifer Thomson is Emeritus Professor in the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of Cape Town and was Head of the Department of Microbiology at the University of Cape Town from 1988 to 2000. She won the L’Oreal/UNESCO prize for Women in Science for Africa in 2004 and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Sorbonne University, Paris, in 2005. Her main research interests are the development of maize resistant to maize streak virus and tolerant to drought. Her books include Genes for Africa: Genetically Modified Crops in the Developing World (UCT Press, 2002) and Seeds for the Future: The Impact of Genetically Modified Crops on the Environment (Cornell University Press and CSIR Press, 2006).

The SAGENE years; from SAGENE to the GMO Act; Into Africa; Davos leads further into Africa; a South African National Biotechnology Strategy; African Biotechnology Strategies; the maize streak virus story; David vs Goliath; food for Africa.

Verlagsort	Cape Town
Sprache	englisch
Maße	152 x 228 mm
Gewicht	275 g
Themenwelt	Literatur ► Biografien / Erfahrungsberichte
	Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Natur / Technik
	Technik ► Lebensmitteltechnologie
ISBN-10	1-920499-81-4 / 1920499814
ISBN-13	978-1-920499-81-5 / 9781920499815
Zustand	Neuware