Property Rights and Genetic Engineering: Developing Nations at Risk

The author argues that genetically engineers seeds, while cutting labor costs, can cause major problems in developing nations, including food shortages, food shortages, unemployment, resistant weeds, and extinction of native cultivars when "volunteers" drift nearby. While patents for genetically engineered seeds are reasonable, the author looks at why many patent policies are not. The paper surveys GE technology, outlines John Locke's classic account of property rights, and argues that current patent policies must be revised to take account of Lockean ethical constraints.