Robert L. Paarlberg is a professor at Wellesley College and Associate at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University, and advisor to Monsanto.
Career
He is the author of several books and numerous articles His research focuses on the international agricultural and environmental policy, regulation of modern technology, including biotechnology. The group"s critique centers on the fact that Paarlberg"s book does not include footnotes, although it is published as part of Oxford University Press"s "What Everyone Needs to Know" series of books, written in an "accessible, Q and A format," none of which contain footnotes.
Robert Paarlberg is the son of academic and public servant Don Paarlberg.
Politics
In December 2011, a group led by food activist Frances Moore Lappé launched a campaign against Paarlberg"s book Food Politics: What Everyone Needs to Know (2010), accusing Paarlberg of failing to "meet minimal scholarly standards, id est (that is) those required of students even at the undergraduate level". The Chronicle of Higher Education noted that Lappé has a longstanding ideological dispute with Paarlberg over his critiques of agroecology and its failure to achieve sustainable food production in Africa, though Lappe denies that the campaign is motivated by ideology.
