Genetically engineered crops and responsible innovation

The current debate over genetically engineered (GE) crops is framed as an evaluation of GE crops as a class. This paper is an attempt to reframe the debate by focusing on the question of what responsible research and innovation (RRI) in agricultural biotechnology would look like. With regard to the ethics of agricultural technology, the most important question that we should be asking is not whether a technology is GE, but whether it is responsibly designed. I discuss a report by the European Group on Ethics in Science and New Technologies to the European Commission in order to propose guidelines for RRI in agricultural technology, and I illustrate the possibility of RRI in agricultural biotechnology by discussing a public-private partnership, the Water Efficient Maize for Africa Project. I conclude by examining the implications of this argument for debates over the ethics of agricultural technologies more generally.