Understanding BioPharming through Agri-Food Analysis

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Understanding BioPharming through Agri-Food
Analysis

• Assoc Prof Hugh Campbell
• Director, Centre for the Study of Agriculture,
  Food and Environment (CSAFE)
• University of Otago

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Who am I?

• Director - the Centre for the Study of
  Agriculture, Food and Environment (CSAFE).
• I am also an sociologist specializing in
  agriculture and food.
• 6 years of government-funded research on the
  socio-economic implications of GM in New Zealand
  agriculture.
• Participant in the Constructive Conversations
  research programme.
• Special interest in agri-food analysis of
  agricultural change.

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The traditional way to understand agricultural
technologies

• Farmer adoption/innovation models.
• One-way delivery of novel technologies from
  science/industry onto farms
• Not much awareness of a wider social and economic
  context to farm activity.
• The role of the State is to facilitate this
  process.
• Very problematic outcomes of using this model to
  try and understand novel technologies in
  agriculture.

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What is an agri-food approach?

• Moving beyond simple models of agriculture and
  technology adoption.
• Sequential chains linking producer and consumer.
• Multiple parties and stakeholders in agri-food
  chains.
• Largely a product of changes post-WWII

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Creating Modern Agri-Food Systems Three
Historical Experiments

• Long Industrial History inventing the long food
  chain.
• Post-WWII History the highly segmented agri-food
  system.
• Moving beyond the Nation/State agriculture after
  the decline in state-level regulation.

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Long Industrial History inventing the long food
chain.

• Industrial Revolution
• 1840s - the Hungry Forties
• 1845-1885 - the Transport Revolution.
• Invention of new food division of labor.
• Emergence of long distance food chains from the
  colonies to the industrial core.

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Agri-food dynamic 1 invisibility

• Long food chains create distanciation between
  producers and consumers of food. It becomes very
  much harder to know about your food to
  understand its production and to understand its
  various transformations.
• This became a dominant dynamic in the 20th
  Century.

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Enter Food Policy

• From the mid-1800s food scares, crises, multiple
  incidents of adulteration, led to strong
  intervention by government into food and
  agriculture.
• This formalized in the 20th Century around the
  regulatory triad State, Civil Society and
  Economy.
• The State is the natural and assumed guardian of
  the public good around food and agriculture.

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2. Post-WWII the segmented agri-food system.

• Food Security issues.
• Strong entry of the State into agriculture -
  subsidies for production and technology.
• Massive corporate investment into agriculture and
  food.
• Emergence of a highly segmented food chain - the
  agri-food system.
• Conflict and tension between different parts of
  the chain.

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Agri-food dynamic 2 internal conflict

• The changing and segmented agri-food system has
  led to a state of constant conflict and struggle
  between different parts of the chain. We can no
  longer assume any kind of unity of interests in
  agri-food systems.

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30-45
Farmers
Transport/ Distribution
Household
Retail
5-8
Farmers
Transport/ Distribution
Retail
Household
Ag. Inputs
Wholesale
Processors
Food Service
Ag. Science
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Agri-Food Chain Dynamics

• Decreasing power - farmers, transport/distribution
  , processing.
• Increasing power - retail, wholesale, food
  service, ag. Inputs, ag. Science.
• Significant competition between the different
  segments in the agri-food chain.

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Noteworthy Pause

• General shift in the last 20 years Decreasing
  power at the production end of the chain,
  increasing power at the retail end of the chain.
• Novel technologies in agriculture are entering
  highly conflict-ridden and competitive agri-food
  chains.
• But food systems are becoming less invisible
  and consumer concerns about food are increasing

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3. Moving beyond the State new forms of
agri-food governance.

• The Nation/State has been the primary site of
  regulation and government in agri-food systems
  since WWII.
• This is increasingly not the case.
• Less formally regulated agri-food systems are
  running into increased levels of consumer concern
  about food.

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New market demands

• Food exporters in countries like NZ are finding
  that retailers and customers are demanding more
  and more assurance about food safety and
  environmental qualities.
• Government to Government schemes are no longer
  sufficient.
• A rise in private sector market audits to ensure
  particular food qualities (eg. organic, EurepGAP,
  fair trade and many others.)

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Summary contemporary agri-food systems

• 1. Agriculture is only a part player in long
  chains of linked social and economic activity.
• 2. Agri-food chains are highly segmented,
  competitive, with many differentially empowered
  participants.
• 3. Agri-food systems are becoming hard to
  regulate, control and direct through the
  traditional mechanisms of state regulation.
• Warning introduce new technologies at your own
  risk!

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Three Case Studies of Complex Agri-Food Relations
around New Technologies

• Flavr Savr Tomatoes
• RR Soybeans
• BioPharming

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Case Study 1 Flavr Savr Tomatoes
Farmers
Transport/ Distribution
Retail
Household
Ag. Inputs
Wholesale
Processors
Food Service
Ag. Science
A tomato that stayed hard after ripening to make
transportation easier. Farmers got no production
benefits. Consumers and restaurants didnt like
the taste.
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Case Study 2 RR Soybeans
Farmers
Transport/ Distribution
Retail
Household
Ag. Inputs
Wholesale
Processors
Food Service
Ag. Science
Soybeans that enabled more flexible weed
management. Also tailored to respond only to the
herbicide of one agricultural technology
supplier.
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Case Study 3 BioPharming
Pharmaceutical Industry
Farmers
Transport/ Distribution
Retail
Household
Ag. Inputs
Wholesale
Processors
Food Service
Ag. Science
Farm animals and crops that become pharmaceutical
factories. Cheap way to produce pharmaceutical
inputs. Severe issues for segregation from the
wider agri-food system.
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Conclusion

• Traditional analysis of technology in agriculture
  has used farmer adoptiop models assessing the
  uptake of new scientific innovations.
• These have failed to grasp the complexities of
  new technologies in society.
• Agri-Food approach helps us frame up questions
  about the multiple parties and many potential
  sites of conflict that can occur between paddock
  and plate.