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Agricultural Genetic Engineering Technology and Sustainable Development in the African Food Security Context

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Agricultural Genetic Engineering Technology and Sustainable Development in the African Food Security Context Agricultural GE and Sustainable Development in the African Context AGRICULTURAL GENETIC ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGY AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN THE AFRICAN FOOD SECURITY CONTEXT A Dissertation presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School at the University of Missouri-Columbia In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy by YASSINE DGUIDEGUE Dr. Mary Hendrickson, Dissertation Supervisor July 2019 Agricultural GE and Sustainable Development in the African Context The undersigned, appointed by the dean of the Graduate School, have examined the dissertation entitled: GENETIC ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGY AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN THE AFRICAN FOOD SECURITY CONTEXT presented by Yassine Dguidegue, a candidate for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, and hereby certify that in their opinion it is worthy of acceptance. Professor Mary Hendrickson Professor Jere Gilles Professor Sandy Rikoon Professor Stephen Jeanetta ___________________________________________________ Professor Martha Dragich Agricultural GE and Sustainable Development in the African Context Dedication: This humble work is dedicated to my father Alall Dguidegue, who showed me the power of education. His intellect, ideas, and convictions have always been inspiring. I would say that I rarely find people like him even in academia with such appreciation of education and intellect. His infinite and unconditional support for my education makes me proud to say that I am the best investment he has made. I may have not been rewarding financially to him, but I have sought to be the person he has always wanted me to be. He always said: “Yassine! you will be saved once you get out of the shell”. It took me so many years to realize what he meant by “the shell”: the shell of ignorance and dogmatism. My mother’s support and love, Fatima Necba, have always kept me rejuvenated in times of struggle. I am grateful to her; it is her rural background which sparked my interest in rural culture and later rural development. My dear wife, Dawn: I am infinitely grateful to you for your unconditional love and support which helped me grow as both a professional and person. Dawn has been my family, my friend, my debater, and everything else. My siblings: Amine, Hassna, and Najwa, I love you all! My brother Jacob Perry, I am infinitely indebted to you for assisting me to do research in the US with Heifer International, hosting me in your family, and adopting me as a family member. I am grateful for Tom Perry for supporting me in so many ways including my stay in the US. I am grateful for Grand Jackee who is one of the best examples of infinite growth, to whom I am grateful for introducing me to professor Helen McElree whose scientific rigor as biology professor was so informative and inspiring. Kim has been the best hospitable host. Jacob’s family made Arkansas my beloved home. Agricultural GE and Sustainable Development in the African Context I would like to dedicate this work to Jim Ronald, thanks to whom I joined Mizzou. I am indebted to him for supporting me in so many ways to join the great Columbia and Mizzou community. He has always believed in me and supported my professional and academic endeavors. His advice, listening, and interest in my academic journey are greatly appreciated. Lahsen Amor, my Moroccan friend, who is from the same neighborhood I am, Sidi Moussa, was very helpful and supportive of my educational and professional journey in Columbia: special thanks go to his wife Bogdanka Novaković-Amor for her kindness and remarkable Serbian hospitality. I dedicate this work to professors Brady Deaton and Anne Deaton who gave me the opportunity to practice building communities of learning through nurturing interdisciplinary peer mentorship among students. The Deaton Scholars Program has been a source of inspiration and pride. I am extremely grateful for my friends who supported my leadership of the program. Special thanks go to all Student and faculty Advisory Board members, namely: Jenifer, Yanu, Tuka, Quyen, Cathie, Justin, Tunde, Summer, Cassandra, Holly, Marilyn, Brad, Taylor, Chisom, Chuka, professor Maria Rodriguez, Gloria, and Gregory Ormsby who has been empowering to us all. Finally, I am grateful for Mizzou community which has helped me grow as a scholar and person. Special thanks to my mentor Jenifer Pilz Coulibaly. Jenifer is the number one supporter of international students: she helped support the start of many student organizations. Her support is beyond description. I also would like to thank Carol Swaim for her patience and support to help me navigate various administrative matters. I would like to thank professor Clark Peters for empowering me to lead two projects in Vietnam; working with him and his family has been a tremendous pleasure; I am infinitely grateful for his support and interest in helping me in every way possible. Special thanks go to professor Anne Marie Foley for valuing my skills and assigning me leadership positions to lead two projects in Vietnam. Thanks to Mike Alden for Agricultural GE and Sustainable Development in the African Context being a great inspiration to me in so many ways. I would like to thank my team in Vietnam: Jack, Elena, Brittney, Andrea, and Justin for being supportive. There are so many people who have provided critical help and advice: professor Johanna Adams, professor Ken Schneeberger, professor Judith Stallmann, professor William Meyers, professor Mary Grigsby and all friends from CAFNR. This dedication is not meant to flatter; it is rather meant to emphasize my absolute conviction that my work and my growth is the product of all these people and others. For this reason, I do not like the American expression: “pull yourself up by your own boot straps” because I have always been helped and there is no single achievement I made which is not based at least on an idea, assistance or information provided by my community members. Graduate students of Rural Sociology are the best examples. I am so proud to be part of such highly engaged and committed group of scholars. Special thanks to Kathleen Freeman who helped me be part of two national and international programs. I appreciate the friendship I have with professor Rebecca Savoie, professor Chad Christenson Parijat Gosh, Liz Achuff, Darren Chapman, Fridah Mubichi, Anadil, Gloria, Jeni Melo, Andreas and more. Agricultural GE and Sustainable Development in the African Context ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS While good information and ideas are the foundation of human intellectual growth, every idea and information are marked by one flaw: traceability. With lack of traceability there is lack of appropriate acknowledgement to those who contributed to these very ideas and information. I do highly value ideas and information, and I believe I do my best to trace them back to their original owners, so let me try this: Dear professor Hendrickson, I am grateful and appreciative for your guidance and support throughout my research journey. Your questions and suggestions for refinement made this come to fruition. I do remember going over more than 100 studies multiple times to ensure the depth of information drawn from them to the extent that I have memorized many of them. Your guidance to build different datasets which delve deeper into my research questions is very much appreciated for two reasons. First, I have now very rich data which I hope I will continue extracting potential scholarly works from. Second, through such rich analysis I learned to provide evidence even for most obvious findings. As you and professor Gilles know, in my first and second year I used to give you regular updates and analysis of all studies. I am grateful how humbly you listened even though you were familiar with many ideas and works I would discuss. You helped me grow as a researcher in most judicious way: you empowered me by taking my thoughts and ideas in the most engaging way possible. Through you I learned to be a thoughtful and practical researcher thanks to your vast research and applied experiences. Dear professor Gilles, I do not take for granted your generous investment in learning about my professional and intellectual interests. I am appreciative for your openness to share your thoughts, engage with my ideas, and provide advice. “Heuristic” has been a lifesaving concept. ii Agricultural GE and Sustainable Development in the African Context You mentioned it to me when I complained about the fact that many classes make deterministic distinctions among methods and theories which does not make sense at all. Your suggestion that the distinctions should be regarded as “heuristic” was so helpful for me in many ways. I will not forget how gently you would suggest to me to read about different types of GE technology (cisgenic, transgenic, and famegenic) and other topics which built a solid foundation to conduct this research. I am also grateful for empowering me to contribute to the Mizzou community through the projects I have joined. I always remember your tremendous support when I was almost unable to stay enrolled in school. Your detailed and elaborate letter of support addressed to Graduate School will always be remembered. Dear professor Rikoon, you taught me through your informative and inspiring classes how my ideas and thoughts should be evidence-based. I remember when we students would share comments and ideas expecting they would appeal to your values on environmental justice, and yet you would challenge and stimulate us to elaborate on and provide evidence for our statements: you perfectly advanced opposite sides of the argument to push us to hone our analysis and thinking. I learned from you how to strike a balance between being a teacher and person. A teacher who masters the art of stimulating learning in most earnest and engaging way possible.
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