In the past three decades, the seed sector has experienced, and is now again experiencing, corporate concentration trends. The fallout of this consolidation is the subject of numerous concerns. However, the seed sector is rather poorly understood. Thus, it is useful to understand it better and...

This chapter serves to assess the quantity and impact of private agricultural research in developing countries, alongside the policies which affect that research. To provide context, an outline of the history, size and structure of private research presents data on research expenditures by...

The seed sector has become a subject of attention, debate, and even controversy with the development of genetically modified (GM) crops. However, this sector is generally rather poorly known. A new paper aims to take stock of the economy of GM seeds in order to better understand the structure of...

One of the Millennium Development Goals set by the United Nations is to reduce the global level of “extreme poverty” (the roughly 1.5 billion people whose income is less than $1 a day) by half by 2015. How can such a goal be reached? This paper argues that since the vast majority of the...

In face of increased efforts to mitigate climate change, biofuels may be included in reduction plans forgreenhouse gas emissions. Feedstock for first generation biofuels and food crops both use arable land andmay compete for it. Also, fuel is an input for the production and transport of food....

The latest Renewable Energy Directive (RED II) by the European Union (EU) provides an updated framework for the use of renewable energy in the EU transport sector until 2030. We employ the computable general equilibrium (CGE) model DART-BIO for a scenario-based policy analysis and evaluate...

We study how stochasticity in the evolution of agricultural productivity interacts with economic and population growth at the global level. We use a two-sector Schumpeterian model of growth, in which a manufacturing sector produces the traditional consumption good and an agricultural sector...

This study aims to narrate the context that shaped the competition assessment of the last wave of mega-mergers in the agrochem sector. It first focuses on the propertization of nature and the shrinking of the public domain, before exploring the important game-changer of the gene-editing...

Biofuel policies are frequently mentioned in the policy and academic debates because of their potential impact on food prices. In 2005, the United States authorities passed legislation under which corn-based ethanol became in practice the only available gasoline additive. Some studies have then...

The book consists of eleven chapters: Part I: Introducing a human rights framework and clarifying human rights provisions Chapter 1: The Context, Including Basic Approaches or Understanding Human Rights Chapter 2: The Right to Benefit from Scientific Progress and its Applications Chapter 3: The...