2. Excerpts from 'The Biotechnology Revolution: Self-Replicating Factories and the Ownership of Life Forms ' by Jonathan King; in 'Cutting Edge: Technology, Information, Capitalism and Social Revolution', edited by Jim Davis, Thomas Hirsch and Michael Stack, published by Verso, 1997; page 145..

A dramatic and revolutionary advance in technology of the past few decades has been the emergence of genetic engineering and biotechnology, providing the capability to transfrom agriculture, food-processing and pharmaceutical production, as well as living organisms themselves, including human beings. A technology that transforms the producers themselves presents both dramatic promises and serious problems. This article explores aspects of the biotechnology revolution with emphasis on the qualitative changes in productivity that arise from harnessing the self-replicating powers of organisms to the production of not just of food but commodities in general. It then explores the inability to realize this potential as a result of new forms of privatization that follow from the industry's effort to gain patents on life forms, representing a qualitatively new form of the private appropriation of social resources. Transformations in Agricultural Production The first agricultural revolution represented the harnessing by the human species of the reproductive power of other organisms for food production. It began with the domestication of animals and the invention of agriculture, the ability to grow plants at high density in reliable cycles. The resulting increase in nutrition led to a great increase in the human population and to its geographical expansion. It also sped the further development of culture and other technologies (Braidwood 1979; Kates 1994). The second leap in agricultural production- the mechanization of agricultural production - was the result of the industrial revolution. In 1820. more than 70% of the US labor force worked directly in agriculture. By 1900, this proportion had fallen to 40%, and by 1980, it was down to 3%. One consequence of the application of machinery to most aspects of agricultural production was a great increase in the size of units that could be planted and harvested. After World War I, mechanization of agriculture was coupled to the introduction of enormous quantities of chemical fertilizers to increase yields, as well as of chemical pesticides and herbicides to limit competing growth or predation. Concomitant were advances in knowledge of soil conditions and growth requirements and advances in breeding from the application of Mendelian genetics to agricultural crops. In the United States, these sciences emerged from the establishment of the Land Grant Colleges in 1862 and later federal support for agricultural extension services. These advances resulted in further quantitative increases in agricultural production without an increase in agricultural employment. The development of hybrid corn (maize) is often credited with very large increases in production; but recent studies indicate that it also transferred seed production and its profits from farmers to agribusiness (Fitzgerald 1990). The highly publicized Green Revolution represented the application of advanced breeding techniques coupled with exogenous fertilizer and pesticide usage to rice production and other crops that were key food sources in undeveloped countries. The result has been short-term increases in yields, but it is not clear whether these can be sustained (Bray 1994). The biotechnology revolution represents another leap in the agricultural revolution, harnessing the enormous self-reproductive powers of organisms for the production of all manner of commodities.   Biotechnology: Self-Replicating Production The productivity of conventional agriculture is often taken for granted. If we plant one kernel of corn in the spring, by the summer there will be a stalk ten feet high with tens of ears of corn and tens of thousands of kernels. This enormous productive capacity is central to the cultures of farmers but is often unappreciated by city dwellers. Until recently, agriculture as a mans of commodity production has been limited to breeding between unrelated species., The evolution of the extraordinary diversity of living creatures depended on their segregation and separation into species, families, orders and so forth. In the course of their evolution, the genes of pines trees have not mixed with the genes of cows, since these organisms neither mate with each other nor have efficient means of recombining their genetic material. Thus, corn plants produce ears of corn and cows produce milk; prior to the biotechnology revolution it was not possible to tap the capacity of either organism to produce heterologous proteins, food products or materials. Genetic engineering technology has now made it possible to cross these barriers so that the proteins of animals can be grown in plants and plant proteins in animals. Human insulin is now produced in bacteria. Cows and goats are also being modified to produce a whole variety of human proteins. Harnessing the self-reproducing capacity of organisms is not limited to proteins or other nutritional molecules. Processes for the synthesis of plastic-like fibers and other polymers designed for industrial uses are also under active development. The development of genetic engineering permits the isolation of genes from almost any organism - humans, clams, oak trees - and their splicing or transfer into genetic apparatus of other organisms. For commercial production technology, the most useful hosts are single-cell organisms which can be grown in a vat, such as bacteria or yeast. These reproduce by the relatively simple fission or budding process. In agribusiness, the hosts of foreign genes are usually crop plants. For some pharmaceutical products, genes of interest may be transferred into goats so as to get production of the foreign protein through the goats udders, milk production and export apparatus. SORRY! THIS ARTICLE IS STILL UNDER CONSTRUCTION

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3. Excerpts from 'The Commission on Sustainable Development' by Ajai Malhotra; in 'A commentary on the status future generations as a subject of international law', Future Generations & international law; Earthscan Publications Ltd., London; page 39.

As a result of UNCED (UN Conference on Environment & Development), a 52 member UN Commission on Sustainable Development (UNSD) was established and has begun its challenging task in pursuing the implementation of UNCED recommendations and seeing to it that Agenda 21 does not remain a program of action on paper alone ... The term sustainable development ... is used as the link between environment and development. For example, Principle 4 of the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development  notes that "in order to achieve sustainable development, environmental protection shall constitute an integral part of the development process and cannot be considered in isolation from it". The essence of the concept of sustainable development lies in the process of improvement of the quality of human life, doing so within the carrying capacity of supporting ecosystems. Or, as the report of the World Commission on Environment and Development put it, sustainable development is "a strategy of development which meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." While the prime focus of the concept of sustainable development is on development and thus on a developmental strategy which meets the needs of the present, the qualification sustainable adds an important aspect of also taking into account implications of present policies and actions for future generations. SORRY! THIS ARTICLE IS STILL UNDER CONSTRUCTION

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4. Excerpts from 'Empowerment for Sustainable Development: An Overview' by Naresh Singh and Vangele Titi; in Chapter One; Empowerment: Towards Sustainable Development', edited by Naresh Singh and Vangile Titi; Fernwood Publishing Ltd, 1995;page 6.

Introduction The concept of empowerment has been at the center of a reconceptualization of development - a paradigm shift - and the development of strategies for poverty alleviation, particularly in the rural areas. In line with this shift, The Human Development Report states that: Development must be woven around people, not people around development - and it should empower individuals and groups rather than disempower them" (UNDP 1993:1). This rethinking has been brough about by the fact that, despite decades of development assistance accompanied by growth in some instances, the number of people who are in absolute poverty - almost 1.3 billion people (a third of the global population) - continues to increase ... Empowerment, therefore, is seen as a problematic (need) that arises in a particular historical context characterized by: increased levels of poverty; the failure of modernization and "trickle-down" economics of the 1970s and 1980s; a widespread perception of the state's inability to intervene successfully on the part of the poor; natural resource depletion; and environmental degradation 1. Sustainable Development The concept of sustainable development reflects both the global threats to humanity as well as opportunities to address the new era of transition towards fundamental global change. It implies a process of change in which the utilization of resources, the direction of investments, the orientation of technological innovation and exchanges, and institutional change reflect both future and present needs. The notion of equity is seen as central to sustainable development and implies less unequal distribution of assets and the enhancement of capabilities and opportunities of the most deprived. At the more practical, operational level, sustainable development means ensuring: self-sustaining improvements in productivity and quality of life of communities and societies, including access to basic needs such as education, health, nutrition, shelter and sanitation, as well as employment and food self-sufficiency; production processes do not over-exploit the carrying and productive capacities of the natural resource base and (thereby) compromise the quality of the environment; and people have basic human rights and freedoms to particiapte in political, economic, social and environmental spheres of the their communities and societies. The primary objectives of sustainable development are therefore to overcome poverty and to protect ecosystems, as well as human options. In order to operationalize and measure progress towards sustainable development, the following indicators become relevant: Maintenance of constant natural capital stock such as topsoil, freshwater, clean air, harvestable forests and fisheries, that is, the preservation of the renewal potential of natural resources; Maintainance of environmental sink capacity to assimilate wastes, sewage and emissions; Improvements in the quality of life through entitlements to the means of production such as land, credit, technology; entitlements to political and social organization and to social services; and access to basic needs such as nutrition, shelter, clothing and sanitation; and Economic development which addresses problems of underconsumption and overconsumption. 2. Poverty A number of definitions of poverty have been arrived at through two processes outlined by Amartya Sen (1981), namely, the identification of the poor through the specification of a set of basic or minimum needs and the inability to meet those needs; and aggregating the characteristics of a set of poor people into an overall image of poverty. Poverty line: Refers to the level of minimum household consumption that is socially acceptable - what Rowntree (1901) calls "primary poverty." It is usually calculated on the basis of an income of which roughly two-thirds would be spent on a "food basket" which provides the least-cost essential calories and proteins. Absolute and Relative Poverty: The phenomenon of absolute poverty is confined mostly to developing countries where the absolute poor are those who fall below the minimum standard of consumption (poverty line). Relative poverty, on the other hand, exists above the poverty line and is perceived as a state of deprivation relative to existing societal norms of income and access to social amenities. Pockets and mass poverty: The phrase 'pockets of poverty' has been applied to localized poor communities in the midst of affluence in the developed countries where the assumption is that the problem is relatively insignificant and can be easily dealt with. On the other hand, 'mass poverty' has been used to describe poverty in the developing countries where the poor constitute a major fraction of the population and where it is becoming increasingly difficult to conceptually isolate the poor. ... Robert Chambers (1983) maintains that the poor are characterised by isolation - due to their peripheral location away from centres of trading, discussions and information, lack of advice from extension workers in agriculture, forestry and health; and in most cases lack of means for travel. The poor experience vulnerability because they have few buffers against contingencies. Small needs are met by drawing on meager reserves of cash, by reduced consumption, by barter or by loans from friends, relatives and traders. They also experience powerlessness as a result of their ignorance of the law, lack of access to legal advice, competition for employment and services with others in similar conditions. 3. Impoverishment Closely tied to the concept of poverty, impoverishment is an "active process" that leads to diminished access to options and entitlements, and it is not confined only to developing countries. Impoverishment is continuously reproduced and generated by a number of currently active global mechanisms, such as: environmental degradation resource depletion unemployment, and debt. These mechanisms erode safety nets and widen the gap between rich and poor nations. The processes of impoverishment, which also disempower, are economic, ecological, social, political and cultural.  In developing countries, the process of impoverishment began with colonization and were exacerbated by subsequent post-colonial attempts to address poverty through modernization approaches. The improvements in infant and maternal mortality rates and in life expectancy, for instance, occurred without concomitant increases in prosperity and greater opportunities for women and has given rise to what has become known as the population explosion (with population growth rates of 2.5% per annum). Southern economies have increasingly become dependent on the North as a consequence of import substitution characterized by a simple transfer of capital intensive technologies and product lines from the developed world. 4. Towards Interlinkages: Sustainable Development, Impoverishment and Empowerment: A schematic representation of the linkages between impoverishment and unsustainable development is depicted in the figure below. The path towards sustainable development and the reversal of impoverishment processes lies in the recognition of the existence of mutual and dynamic ineractions between social, political, cultural, economic and ecologcal factors - referred to as "horizontal" linkages. A change in one element or factor "may reverberate through one or various causal chains, eventually trigerring changes in other components". This chain reaction is illustrated in the figure, and is triggered by both external macro conditions such as unfavourable terms of trade and internal macro conditions such as problems with the balance of payments leading to increased borrowing and (enforced) structural reforms.This may in turn lead to new patterns of economic, social, political and ecological activity, ultimately resulting in the disempowerment and impoverishment of communities. The reversal of this process starts with increasing options to the poor by providing them with a true capacity to cope with a changing environment - the capacity to adapt and to be self-reliant - that is, endogenously to define goals, priorities, identity and values. 5. Towards an Operational Concept of Empowerment for Sustainable Development: Past and current approaches to poverty alleviation and empowerment have included "urban development" strategies premised on modernization and trickle-down paradigms; seeking to improve housing conditions of the poor and to save time in the performance of household work, thus contributing to their well-being and development. At the "rural development" level, three initiatives have been tried without significant success in poverty alleviation. They include: The growth pole strategy, which was to introduce industries to locate in chosen cities to set in motion a dynamic process of economic growth and attract the "surplus" rural population to these "poles" of employment generation; The resettlement strategy; and The integrated rural development strategy - a multi-sectoral, multi-functional development initiative - with an integrationist approach - in response to the vast array of problems; they were comprised of a package of coordinated responses to health, agricultural extension, credit and technology needs. The above strategies failed to empower the poor and alleviate poverty on a sustained basis because: they did not have a process in place to learn from the poor about their needs, aspirations and knowledge; the strategies did not identify the national and international structural problems that impact on poverty alleviation processes; the initiatives did not provide the poor with opportunities to solve basic problems for themselves - the problem solving capacity of the poor in the face of adversity was not increased. 6. Empowerment for Sustainable Development: Empowerment for sustainable development draws its elements from both past and current strategies and integrates them within a socio-ecological framework of analysis. As such, it gives people a true capacity to cope with the changing environment as societies and communities enter the transition towards sustainable development. This transition requires growing social awareness, higher levels of social participation, and the utilization of new insights on ecological processes of change and self-renewal. The thrust of the empowerment for sustainable development approach is "socio-economic, political / educational, technological and cultural / spiritual self-empowerment."   7. Empowerment Methodologies and Approaches: These approaches stress the importance of fact-finding, education and evaluation; with the poor as actors in the processes of development planning and action ... to enable the poor to look critically at their world, to break out of their "culture of silence", and to take control of their own methods of research (they are now actors rather than objects). a. Research as a tool for empowerment: "Participatory research" stems from a shift from statist approaches (where the state, policymakers, researchers, etc. provide development solutions to the poor) to people-centered approaches  which recognize the poor people's knowledge base and capacities to initiate changes. The "Participatory research" approach stresses the participants' roles of both - actor and beneficiaries - in the research process and its results. Its success as an empowerment tool, through problem solving techniques and the mobilization of the community's potential for poverty alleviation has been well articulated by the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee's (BRAC's) experiences. At the heart of BRAC's philosophy is the expectation that the villagers will achieve a level of competence which will make BRAC's field workers obsolete. Another approach closely linked to the "participatory research" approach is the social learning approach, otherwise known as the reversals in learning. Articulated by David Korten (1990) and others, this approach uses the principle of learning directly from the poor by "trying to understand their knowledge systems and eliciting their technical knowledge".   b.  Education as a tool for empowerment: Within the sphere of education, practitioners have grappled with the issue of what type of education is needed to enable and enhance the capabilities of the poor. There is a general agreement that the formal eduation as it is currently practised does not enable and enhance the capabilities of the poor peoples and nations. Rather, it has been a shaky vehicle for the structural changes in the socio-economic and political spheres which are crucial in enabling the poor to participate in their own development. Proponents of an alternative education - known as "education for change", "non-formal adult education", training for transformations" and various other derivatives (Freire 1970; Arnold et al 1991; Hope and Trimmel 1989) have advanced these forms of education to as a vehicle that enables the people to develop skills and capacities which increase their control over decisions, resources and structures affecting their lives; creating the conditions for full and equal participation of the poor people in discussions and decisions, and at the same time empowers all people to act for change - "to see themselves as creators of culture, history and an alternative social vision" (Arnold et al, 1991).   c. The Social Analysis Approach: The social analysis approach, whose well known developer and proponent is the International Grail Movement, has been adopted and adapted by churches, NGOs and international development organizations involved in activities ranging from refugees and displacees to gender and development. It uses a four-tiered approach for change: the indvidual level, taking into account each individual needs, possibilities, strengths and weaknesses; the group level, to enhance an understanding of group dynamics and group leadership skills for the purposes of fostering decision-making skills, constructive ways of dealing with conflict, and evaluation methods; the institutional level, to identify the most significant institutions through which csociety can be transformed (i.e. education, mass media, trade unions, the army, etc.); and the wider society, which brings in an understanding of the social forces which are operating at any particular moment - either to enhance or thwart efforts for change. d. Popular Participation: The notion of popular participation or people's participation in the political, economic and environmental decisions of their countries and communities has been advanced as another tool for empowerment. The extent of its success as a tool for empowerment rests on the understanding of the multiple dimensions that such participation involves (social, cultural,economic) and the development of strategies based on this understanding.   8. Significance and Potential of Empowerment  Approaches to Sustainable Development: The methodologies and approaches discussed above have focussed on social change which encompasses some political, economic and social components of empowerment and have had some success at the local village-community level. The successes of the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC), Organizations for Rural Associations in Progress (ORAP) in Zimbabwe, Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, and others indicate the potential for success of these approaches. In certain instances, communities which had been unorganized and somewhat inactive have been mobilized to assume initiative for improving their own lives and their communities on a sustainable basis. However, the actual extent of empowerment for poverty alleviation and sustainable development appears to be limited by the fact that gains made have not significantly altered the community's access to internal resources and by the scope of intervention, which is largelt village- or community-based and sectoral in orientation. These limitations can be attributed to the failure to build interlinkages into intervention strategies. At the same time, if empowerment is seen as a means towards the reversal of the impoverishment processes, then the approaches are a starting point in enabling people to engage in identifying the linkages themselves, identifying internal and external sources of their impoverishment, as well as their own strengths and opportunities.

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