GM Food on Trial

This book examines European institutions being 'put on trial' for how their regulatory procedures evaluate and regulate genetically-modified products. Levidow highlights how public controversy created a legitimacy crisis, leading to national policy changes and demands, in turn stimulating changes in EU agbiotech regulations as a strategy to regain legitimacy.

Autorentext

Les Levidow is on the faculty of the Development Policy and Practice department at The Open University.

Susan Carr is a Senior Lecturer in Systems at The Open University.

Zusammenfassung
Europe was told that it had no choice but to accept agbiotech, yet this imperative was turned into a test of democratic accountability for societal choices. Since the late 1990s, European public controversy has kept the agri-biotech industry and its promoters on the defensive. As some opponents and regulators alike have declared, 'GM food/crops are on trial'. Suspicion of their guilt has been evoked by moral symbols, as disputes over whether genetically-modified products are modest benign improvements on traditional plant breeding, or dangerous Frankenfoods; and in disputes over whether they are global saviours, or control agents of multinational companies. This book examines European institutions being 'put on trial' for how their regulatory procedures evaluate and regulate GM products, in ways which opened up alternative futures. Levidow and Carr highlight how public controversy created a legitimacy crisis, leading to national policy changes and demands, in turn stimulating changes in EU agbiotech regulations as a strategy to regain legitimacy.

Inhalt

Introduction 1. Analytical Perspectives 2. Making Europe Safe for Agbiotech, Generating Dissent 3. Opening up Risks, Disputing Un/Sustainable Agriculture 4. Channelling Participation, Testing Public Representations 5. Regulating Risk, Testing EU Reforms 6. Scaling Up GM Crops, Testing Commercial Operators 7. Labelling GM Products, Testing Free Choice 8. Segregating GM Crops, Contesting Future Agricultures 9. Conclusion: Testing European Democracy