Lawrence Busch

Lawrence Busch is Professor of Standards and Society at the Centre for Economic and Social Aspects of Genomics at Lancaster University and University Distinguished Professor of Sociology and former Director of the Institute for Food and Agricultural Standards at Michigan State University. He is (co)author or (co)editor of twelve books including Plants, Power and Profit: Social, Economic, and Ethical Consequences of the New Biotechnologies (Blackwell, 1991), Toward a New Political Economy of Agriculture (Westview, 1991), From Columbus to Conagra: The Globalization of Agriculture (University of Kansas Press, 1994), Making Nature, Shaping Culture: Plant Biodiversity in Global Context, (University of Nebraska Press, 1995), The Eclipse of Morality: Science, State and Market, (Aldine DeGruyter, 2000), Agricultural Standards: The Shape Of The Global Food And Fiber System,(Springer, 2006), Universities in the Age of Corporate Science: The UC Berkeley–Novartis Controversy, (Temple University Press, 2007), and Standards:  Recipes for Reality (MIT Press, forthcoming). He has also authored or coauthored more than 150 other publications. He is past president of both the Rural Sociological Society and the Agriculture, Food, and Human Values Society, a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a Chevalier de l’Ordre du Mérite Agricole and and elected member of the Académie d’Agriculture de France. He recently received a doctor honoris causa from the Universidade Técnica de Lisboa. Dr. Busch's interests include food and agricultural standards, biotechnology and nanotechnology policy, agricultural science and technology policy, higher education in agriculture, and public participation in the policy process.