The status of biotehnology-based innovation

This paper contributes to the debate surrounding the question of whether biotechnology, particularly its applications in agricultural and food-related industries, should be regarded as revolutionary or evolutionary (with some reservations about the vaildity of teh question). The potential to create a revolutionary techno-economic paradigm shift does exist but it is currently systems. It is also important to consider the motivations underlying statements about the revolutionary/ evolutionary nature of biotechnology, as some such statements are intended to influence events rather than to reflect them. The impact of small firms on the direction and place of revolutionary change in these industries is likely to be marginal, unlike the situation in the early phases of teh electronics/IT revolution. At present the lack of integration of policy initiatives by national governments and the EC is a major factor discouraging the rapid implementation of change.