Let There Be Light ... and Bread: The United Nations, the Developing World, and Atomic Energy's Green (2009)
Although President Eisenhower's 1953 'Atoms for Peace' speech typically is associated with the promotion of nuclear power, it also recommended other peaceful uses of the atom, including applications in agriculture. 'Developing' countries in particular took a keen interest in food preservation, grain disinfestation, fertilizer studies, insect control, and mutation breeding, all using irradiation. A conflict of philosophies emerged at the United Nations between the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The IAEA stood accused of promoting a narrow range of technological solutions, ignoring more sensible but less sensational techniques, and tempting the poorest countries of the world to achieve 'modernization' with unproven technologies. The present essay outlines the origins of FAO/IAEA conflict and collaboration in the 1960s, and explores the failed effort of plant geneticist Ronald Silow to stop what he saw as the IAEA's hijacking of agriculture at the UN
...MoreDescription On the interaction between two UN agencies, the Food and Agriculture Organization and the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Similar Citations
Book
Elisabeth Roehrlich;
(2022)
Inspectors for Peace: A History of the International Atomic Energy Agency
(/isis/citation/CBB775978058/)
Chapter
Finstad, Terje;
(2014)
The Means of Modernization: Freezing Technologies and the Cultural Politics of Everyday Life, Norway 1940--1965
(/isis/citation/CBB001500414/)
Article
Elisabeth Roehrlich;
(2016)
The Cold War, the Developing World, and the Creation of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), 1953–1957
(/isis/citation/CBB387447389/)
Book
Jayita Sarkar;
(2022)
Ploughshares and Swords: India's Nuclear Program in the Global Cold War
(/isis/citation/CBB433310944/)
Article
Hecht, Gabrielle;
(2006)
Negotiating Global Nuclearities: Apartheid, Decolonization, and the Cold War in the Making of the IAEA
(/isis/citation/CBB000670744/)
Article
Maria Rentetzi;
(2021)
With strings attached: Gift-giving to the International Atomic Energy Agency and US foreign policy
(/isis/citation/CBB321286517/)
Thesis
Mallard, Gregoire;
(2008)
The Atomic Confederacy: Europe's Quest for Nuclear Weapons and the Making of the New World Order
(/isis/citation/CBB001561194/)
Article
Maria Rentetzi;
(2017)
Determining Nuclear Fingerprints: Glove Boxes, Radiation Protection, and the International Atomic Energy Agency
(/isis/citation/CBB970461078/)
Article
Bahgat, Gawdat;
(2006)
Nuclear Proliferation: The Islamic Republic of Iran
(/isis/citation/CBB001031134/)
Article
Hamblin, Jacob Darwin;
(2006)
Exorcising Ghosts in the Age of Automation: United Nations Experts and Atoms for Peace
(/isis/citation/CBB000830422/)
Article
Franziska Torma;
(2017)
Biofakte als historiografische Linsen: Die Technik- und Gesellschaftspolitik des Hybridmaises im geteilten Deutschland Biofacts as historiographical Lenses: The technology and social policy of hybrid corn in divided Germany]
(/isis/citation/CBB351256325/)
Article
Cozzens, Taylor;
(2015)
Defeating the Devil's Arm: The Victory over the Short-Handled Hoe in California Agriculture
(/isis/citation/CBB001553157/)
Article
Luparenko, Grygoriy;
(2013)
The Activity of Ivan J. Drong in the 60- Middle of 80 Years of the XX in Context of the Development of Tractors Design
(/isis/citation/CBB001321282/)
Article
Chandler, Jennifer;
(2007)
Law and Technology: Exploring the Role of the Law in the Conflict Between Organic Farming and Biotechnology
(/isis/citation/CBB000720337/)
Book
Anderson, J. L.;
(2009)
Industrializing the Corn Belt: Agriculture, Technology, and Environment, 1945--1972
(/isis/citation/CBB000954248/)
Book
Marci Baranski;
(2022)
The Globalization of Wheat: A Critical History of the Green Revolution
(/isis/citation/CBB031473898/)
Article
Sayer, Karen;
(2013)
Animal Machines: The Public Response to Intensification in Great Britain, c. 1960-c. 1973
(/isis/citation/CBB001320824/)
Article
Kearnes, Matthew;
Grove-White, Robin;
Macnaghten, Phil;
Wilsdon, James;
Wynne, Brian;
(2006)
From Bio to Nano: Learning Lessons from the UK Agricultural Biotechnology Controversy
(/isis/citation/CBB000720307/)
Article
Vodopivec, Nina;
(2012)
On the Road to Modernity: Textile Workers and Post-socialist Transformations in Slovenia
(/isis/citation/CBB001550402/)
Article
Van Vleck, Jenifer.;
(2009)
An Airline at the Crossroads of the World: Ariana Afghan Airlines, Modernization, and the Global Cold War
(/isis/citation/CBB000931980/)
Be the first to comment!