I am interested in how decisions are made in international efforts to improve food security in the global south. Research themes include:
governance of agricultural biotechnology
agriculture, food security and climate change
biofortification and human nutrition
social science of food choice
Many of the publications listed below are free to download (click on PDF icon). If you are interested in a particular publication and have difficulty accessing it please contact me.
Governance of Agricultural Biotechnology
Despite the high profile controversy surrounding genetically modified (‘GM’) crops, public debate about risks and benefits of the technology remains narrow and polarised. This research explores how and why debates have evolved in this way, considers the consequences for small holder farmers and consumers in developing countries, and proposes alternative ways forward.
This work has included a policy engagement initiative which brought together stakeholders in the regulation of GM crops in Kenya and the Philippines – two countries viewed as ‘test cases’ for biotechnology policy development in their respective regions – to explore ways to open up biosafety policy debates to a wider range of stakeholders, including civil society representatives. Download short briefing summarising key findings and recommendations here.
Selected Publications
Brooks, S. (2011) Is International Agricultural Research a Global Public Good? The Case of Rice Biofortification’, Journal of Peasant Studies, 38 (1) 67 – 80
Brooks, S (2010) Rice Biofortification: Lessons for Global Science and Development, London: Earthscan
Brooks, S. (2010) Opening up the GM Crop Debate, People and Science, March 2010: 24
Brooks, S. (2005) ‘Biotechnology and the Politics of Truth: From the Green Revolution to an Evergreen Revolution’, Sociologia Ruralis 45 (4) 360 – 379
Agriculture, Food Security and Climate Change
Climate change presents new challenges to agriculture in developing countries. This is especially true in Sub Saharan Africa where smallholder farmers remain the mainstay of national and local food security. For these farmers, climate uncertainty compounds existing vulnerabilities arising from the differential impacts of global market volatilities, international and national policy choices and local natural resource degradation.
I participated in a collaborative research initiative of the University of Sussex-based STEPS Centre and partner institutions in Kenya that examined politics and processes shaping institutional, community and household responses to climate change: from donor-funded biotechnology research programmes to farmers’ innovations and adaptive strategies.
We produced a short film to communicate key research findings and policy implications.
Seeds and sustainability: Maize Pathways in Kenya from STEPS Centre on Vimeo.
Selected Publications
Brooks, S. and Loevinsohn, M.E. (2011) Shaping Agricultural Innovation Systems Responsive to Food Insecurity and Climate Change, Natural Resources Forum, 5(3) 185-200
Brooks, S., Thompson J., Odame H., Kibaara B., Nderitu S., Karin F. and Millstone, E. (2009) Environmental Change and Maize Innovation in Kenya: Exploring Pathways in and out of Maize, STEPS Working Paper 36, Brighton: STEPS Centre
Biofortification and Nutrition
Biofortification is the science of creating crops fortified with extra nutrients. Unlike more familiar fortification methods like salt iodisation, biofortification uses biological techniques of plant breeding and genetic engineering to embed nutrition ‘in the seed’. The Golden Rice project and HarvestPlus Challenge Program are two of the best known examples of biofortification.
My research explores how and why this novel approach has become so successful in attracting financial backing and political attention as a ‘silver bullet’ solution to micronutrient malnutrition (or ‘hidden hunger’) as a global health problem. It highlights barriers to the realisation of biofortification as a public health intervention responsive to national priorities and local needs in developing countries, and how these might be overcome.
Selected Publications
Brooks, S. (2013) Biofortification: lessons from the Golden Rice project, Food Chain 3(1) 77-88
Brooks, S. and Johnson-Beebout, S.E. (2012) Contestation as continuity? Biofortification research and the CGIAR. In Sumberg, J. and Thompson, J. (Eds.) Contested Agronomy: Agricultural Research in a Changing World. London: Routledge
Brooks, S. (2011) ‘Living with Materiality or Confronting Asian Diversity? The Case of Iron-Biofortified Rice Research in the Philippines’, East Asian Science Technology and Society (EASTS), 5 (2) 173–188
Brooks, S. (2011) ‘Is International Agricultural Research a Global Public Good? The Case of Rice Biofortification’, Journal of Peasant Studies, 38 (1) 67 – 80
Brooks, S (2010) Rice Biofortification: Lessons for Global Science and Development, London: Earthscan
Brooks, S., Leach M., Lucas, H. and Millstone, E. (2009) Silver Bullets, Grand Challenges and the New Philanthropy, STEPS Working Paper 24, Brighton: STEPS Centre
Politics of Food Choice
The concept of ‘individual choice’ has become central to contemporary understandings of the relationship between food, health and well-being.
I belong to an interdisciplinary research group called CHEW (Choice Working group). Our group studies how a narrow definition of individual choice based on rational actor assumptions has been put to work in contemporary food and health policy - in high income countries and, increasingly, in low and middle income countries as well. We work towards the development of alternative understandings of food choice that reflect the embodied and contextual nature of ‘choices’ made by individuals as social beings.
Selected Publications
Brooks, S., D. Burges Watson, A. Draper, M. Goodman, H. Kvalvaag and W. Wills (2013) Chewing on Choice, in Abbots, E-J & Lavis, A (Eds.) Why We Eat, How We Eat: Contemporary Encounters Between Foods and Bodies, Farnham: Ashgate
Brooks, S., D. Burges Watson, A. Draper, M. Goodman, H. Kvalvaag and W. Wills (2012) Chewing on Choice, Working Paper 40, Environment, Politics and Development Working Paper Series, Department of Geography, Kings College London
Useful Links
From Poverty to Power by Duncan Green of Oxfam
Institute of Development Studies
STEPS Biotechnology Research Archive
Third World Network (TWN) Biosafety Information Centre
UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food
If you would like more information about my research please contact me.