Genetically Modified Seeds and Decommodification: An Analysis Based on the Chinese Cotton Case

One of the driving forces of this process of decommodification is agricultural biotechnology. Indeed, the application of new scientific methods makes possible a degree of product “customization” that was simply unimaginable a few decades ago. But those changes would not have made much difference if they had not been favored by policy interventions that reshaped the institutional set-up at the national as well as at the international level. The worldwide strengthening of the protection of intellectual property rights (IPR) provided robust incentives for unprecedented private investments in biotechnology. This chapter provides an assessment of the application of genetic engineering to agriculture and its marketing to LDCs in the specific case of a success story, namely the creation of a genetically modified (GM) seed, Bt-cotton (GM cotton from here on), and its adoption in China.