Geoff Tansey Knihy

The theme running through this collection of essays is that food quality and human health, the welfare of animals and the methods of farming, and the quality of the environment, go hand-in-hand. This theme continues along the lines that the present system is harmful to them all and to our ability to generate enough good food for the whole world. The contributors to the volume offer alternatives - for more humane and moderate methods of farming which produce enough nourishing food without damaging the environment it depends on.

This book is the first wide-ranging guide to the key issues of intellectual property and ownership, genetics, biodiversity and food security. Proceeding from an introduction and overview of the issues, comprehensive chapters cover negotiations and instruments in the World Trade Organization, Convention on Biological Diversity, UN Food and Agriculture Organization, World Intellectual Property Organization, the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants and various other international bodies. The final part discusses the responses of civil society groups to the changing global rules, how these changes affect the direction of research and development, the nature of global negotiation processes and various alternative futures. Published with IDRC and QIAP.