USDA creates Borlaug fellowships

Even as several African nations have refused shipments of genetically modified (GM) US corn, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has announced a new fellowship, named for the "father of the Green Revolution," designed to bring junior and mid-ranking scientists and policymakers from African, Asian, and Latin American countries to the United States to learn from their US counterparts.

But there is "absolutely no connection" between the countries' stance toward GM foods and the Norman Borlaug International Science and Technology Fellows Program, Jocelyn Brown, the USDA's assistant deputy administrator of international cooperation and development, told The Scientist. "These fellowships address the declining numbers of researchers and policymakers in agricultural science and technology," she said. They will be "flexible enough to accept fellows from a gamut of areas," Brown said, in subjects chosen by the countries, not the USDA.

The fellowships are named after 1970 Nobel Peace Laureate Norman...