The life, death, and afterlife of the "terminator gene": the intersection of biotechnology, globalization, and politcs in India

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dc.creatorSiepel, Joshua Dee
dc.date.accessioned2013-02-22T20:40:44Z
dc.date.available2013-02-22T20:40:44Z
dc.date.created2004
dc.date.issued2013-02-22
dc.descriptionDue to the character of the original source materials and the nature of batch digitization, quality control issues may be present in this document. Please report any quality issues you encounter to digital@library.tamu.edu, referencing the URI of the item.en
dc.descriptionIncludes bibliographical references (leaves 27-28).en
dc.description.abstractIn March 1998, the United States government granted a patent for a new technology that allowed for the production of seeds that would grow for only one generation. The intent of the patent was to protect intellectual property and to prevent gene flow from genetically modified crops to other plants. Opponents of genetically modified organisms seized on the patent as a symbol of the danger of biotechnology, dubbing the new technology the "terminator gene." News of the gene soon spread to the developing world, especially India, where angry farmers' groups burned test plots of genetically modified cotton that did not contain the suspect gene. This controversy was one of the first flash points in the developing world in the global debate about agricultural biotechnology. In this project, I used contemporary news accounts and recent critical papers to examine the events in India, with specific focus on the reactions of major stakeholders to the controversy. The responses of government officials ranged from silence at upper levels of government to angry cries by state ministers for the expulsion of all multinational corporations. Monsanto, which received the brunt of the protesters' anger, shifted its response from a cold, corporate message to a friendly perspective voiced by Indians. Non-governmental organizations fomented the controversy by providing the protesting farmers groups with media coverage. For most of the major stakeholders, the events in India proved to be a source of much negative publicity at the time, but ultimately became a learning experience that helped them to adapt to the unique political and social climate surrounding the introduction of biotechnology in the developing world.en
dc.format.digitalOriginreformatted digitalen
dc.format.mediumelectronicen
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdf
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/1969.1/ETD-TAMU-2004-Fellows-Thesis-S56
dc.language.isoen_US
dc.publisherTexas A&M University
dc.rightsThis thesis was part of a retrospective digitization project authorized by the Texas A&M University Libraries in 2008. Copyright remains vested with the author(s). It is the user's responsibility to secure permission from the copyright holder(s) for re-use of the work beyond the provision of Fair Use.en
dc.subjectgenetics.en
dc.subjectMajor genetics.en
dc.titleThe life, death, and afterlife of the "terminator gene": the intersection of biotechnology, globalization, and politcs in Indiaen
dc.type.genrethesisen
dc.type.materialtexten
thesis.degree.departmentgeneticsen
thesis.degree.disciplinegeneticsen
thesis.degree.levelUndergraduateen
thesis.degree.nameFellows Thesisen

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University Undergraduate Research Fellows (1968–2012)