Humanitarian approaches to food and environmental security, capacity building, and
science policy for the poor
Joel I. Cohen
Email: cohenji@comcast.net
Joel Cohen's career in agriculture began as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Nepal, from 1973-1975, where he served as a rural
extension officer, living with a village family in the Northeastern Himalayans. While there, he facilitated delivery of
virus-resistant fruit trees, aquatic species, improved cereal varieties, worked alongside farmer-breeders, and
experienced environmental challenges for hill side and terraced farming. From here, his commitment to humanitarian
services was built.
In May of 2003, he became Executive Director, Program for Biosafety Systems (PBS), an international consortium enhancing
regulatory policy, system development, and building capacity in Africa and Asia. He held this post until September 2nd,
2005 when his responsibilities changed to a more extensive research and capacity building agenda. This further supported
his appointment in April 2004 as a Senior Research Fellow in the Environment and Production Technology Division at the
International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). Joel now specializes in issues of agricultural knowledge systems
applied to poverty reduction, food, environment, and bio-security, and implications of related science policy. This work
includes studies on biotechnology, biodiversity, and biosafety as they affect agricultural research and policy.
Recommendations for these topics, research, capacity building, and comparative country studies are also developed, with
an emphasis on famine and relief efforts.
His appointment at IFPRI followed 11 years of work as Project Leader, Management of New Technologies for Agricultural
Research at the International Service For National Agricultural Research (ISNAR) where he led a division of 30
professionals. Simultaneously, he served as Director of the ISNAR Biotechnology Service (IBS). He has recently authored
papers on the public production of genetically modified crops and genetic resources in 16 developing countries and their
regulatory implications; the policy setting for food safety assessments in the developing world; leadership and new
science, plant breeding and biodiversity surveys, regulatory and environmental concerns regarding GM crops; and,
realities/possibilities for crop biotechnology to mitigate or cope with effects of climate change.
He has served as a member of the Advisory Committee for the preparation of a biotechnology strategy for the Asian
Development Bank, member of the task force for developing a new biotechnology strategy for the Inter-American
Development Bank. He has been recently elected as a Steering Committee member to the Coordination Meeting for
Governments and Organizations Implementing or Funding Biosafety Capacity-Building Actives, for the Cartagena Protocol on
Biosafety and the Convention on Biological Diversity. He presently serves as one author in the International Assessment
of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD). It is a unique international effort that will evaluate
the relevance, quality and effectiveness of agricultural knowledge, science, and technology. He also consulted for the
Asian Productivity Organization in 2005 for their special seminar on rice and biotechnology,
He prepared background reports on strategies for, and relevance of, biotechnology and biosafety for the World Bank's
Africa Bureau. He contributed a background report for UNDP's 2001 Human Development Report on biosafety and applications
of biotechnology for developing countries, which was later invited for publication in the Journal of Human Development.
Key findings related to research program needs and policy implications for biotechnology and biosafety was published by
CABI and edited by Dr. Cohen.
Prior to joining ISNAR, Dr. Cohen worked for the US Agency for International Development, as Senior Biotechnology
Specialist in the Office of Agriculture. While there, Dr. Cohen advanced the design, formulation, award and
implementation of biotechnology and biodiversity projects, many of which remain ongoing. Before joining USAID, he worked
for Dekalb Plant Genetics as a maize breeder and worked with its biotechnology research group. His doctoral degree is in
plant breeding and molecular genetics, from the Department of Plant and Soil Sciences, University of Massachusetts,
Amherst.
