Plants, Power and Profit

This book provides an assessment of the economic, social, political and environmental effects of plant biotechnology. The authors begin with an examination of current research, and conclude that while investment in the field is growing, it is being increasingly dominated by a small number of multinational corporations in the pharmaceutical and chemical industries. Japanese experts predict that by 2000, profits from such plants will amount to ten per cent of Japan's GNP. But the growth of these industries will involve social and environmental hazards. The authors examine the effects of plants on local ecologies and the likely implications for poorer countries of the mass synthetic production of commodities like rubber, the traditional collection and manufacture of which was a major source of employment.