Project: Archive of Agricultural Genetic Engineering and Society Center Interviewee: Dr. David Zilberman. Professor of Agricultural and Resource Economics at University of California Berkeley Interviewers: Matthew Booker, Brad Herring Interview Date: May 10, 2015 Location: NC State University, Hunt Library Length: 1:44:16 Learn more at https://go.ncsu.edu/AAGES SEE FULL TRANSCRIPT AT: https://research.ncsu.edu/ges/files/2018/08/Zilberman_David_20150510_transcript_FINAL.pdf 00:15 - Could you please tell us your name, your institution, and your role. 01:23 - Can you describe what you do? 04:01 - So, what did you want to be when you grew up when you were a child? 09:03 - So when did you become interested—you’ve had a long career. You’ve been interested in technological adoption. What interested you in the economics of technological adoption? Why were you interested in that particular theme as an agricultural economist? 15:24 - So when did you get interested in genetic engineering and agriculture? How did you make that transition? 21:50 - What did you learn from this controversial work on pesticides? 40:10 Well I wanted to ask you a follow-up actually. You mention that pro and con positions on GMOs developed rather early. And I have two questions about that. The first is that in a recent paper that you wrote—I’m paraphrasing now—I think it was The Journal of Economic Perspectives in Winter 2014. You wrote that arguments for and against genetically engineered crops don’t seem to have changed much since the 1980s. And so I wonder about that. Why do you think that is? Why do you think these positions have been so static even as genetic engineering crops have advanced a great deal. We have come a long way since 1980 in terms of the products but the debate, I think you’re suggesting, hasn’t changed that much. 53:33 - Do you have an opponent on the other side of the issue or someone who has a different perspective than you do whom you particularly admire? And if so, why? 57:30 - So you’ve had a long career and you’ve seen the evolution of genetic engineering and agriculture and that’s why I wanted to ask you next what you think are the next emerging issues. That is to say, where do you think genetic engineering and agriculture is going next? 01:08:21 -So one of the main criticisms that I hear of genetically modified organisms, or more precisely genetic engineering in agriculture, is concerns about intellectual property and the widespread concern in society—or maybe I should call it suspicion of the concentration of ownership by a handful of companies—and you mentioned that earlier. How do you respond to that or what’s your perspective on that? As an economist in particular I think that’s an interesting [question]. 01:27:49 - So what are your greatest concerns about the future of the technology? 01:29:24 - What about your greatest hopes? 01:30:48 - How do you feel about the public’s level of trust in governments, and universities and in private work and genetic engineering? 01:33:50 - So to follow up on that last question, what would you like the public, in this case the American public, to know about genetically modified organisms? 01:34:34 - And I have two more questions. The first question is: what is it that really drives you right now? What is it that gets you out of bed in the morning? 01:36:32 - And Brad, before I ask the last question, is there anything you wanted to ask? [B.H.] No. I had a couple of questions and then as you kept talking you answered them so I don’t think so. I mean I think one of them—we asked about the future of farming in twenty years and I kind of thought, what is the future of farming and agriculture in a hundred years? I think you kind of went down that a little bit. 01:39:10 - So were there any questions you expected me to ask, but I did not? And most importantly, what question should I have asked that you were not asked today?