What is Agbiotech

Supporters of agricultural biotechnology have maintained a high enthusiasm for its role in improving agricultural yields and enhancing sustainability, for instance, in Africa. However, critics are deeply skeptical. This chapter sketches some of the main arguments on both sides to provide a summary analysis. The discussion includes multiple climatic, socioeconomic, and public policy drivers that have collided with the ability of the average person to achieve food security. If food security is to be understood as a matter of human health, then its definitions and designs must recognize food's many roles in creating positive public health outcomes. Hence, the discussion expands to include an integrative model of food security linking sociocultural, public policy, and ecological aspects to public health. The chapter concludes that extensive work must be done to steer policy initiatives toward common sense sustainability paths to achieve food security and/or sovereignty.