Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
that dominate GM agriculture. Although opponents lack conclusive fac-
tual support for most of these contentions, several incidents indicate that
some of their arguments have merit, and that has kept many others from
accepting industry claims.
Public discourse on the uncertainties, benefits, and risks of GM agri-
culture has been robust, but its influence on the development of regu-
latory programs and other aspects of risk governance has varied. This is
made clear in several chapters that follow. In the United States and other
major commodity crop growing countries such as Argentina, Australia,
and Canada, the discourse has been overwhelmed by well-established
commercial and governmental interests in exports, with the result that
residual issues are channeled into formal regulatory proceedings wherein
industry views and scientific studies dominate decision making. In large
rapidly developing nations such as India and China, the risk discourse
continues but has been subsumed to official policies designed to meet
the urgent food needs of their rapidly growing populations. As a result,
early doubts and exclusionary policies have been replaced by policies
that accept GM agriculture as a societal necessity. Brazil and Spain have
similarly changed course and come to accept GM agriculture because of
the opportunities it provides for boosting their exports under global free-
trade regimes. However, the discourse remains vibrant and has brought
about precautionary and exclusionary policies in Japan and the majority
of the twenty-six member-states of the European Union (EU), includ-
ing Austria, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, and Poland. Indeed, sev-
eral have rejected EU directives that would slowly open the door to GM
crops and have established GM-free zones.
New developments continuously arise that recharge the discourse
and, in some instances, cause reexamination of policies. Perhaps most
notable are several incidents of contamination of conventional crops by
GM crops in the United States that have caused business losses as orders
for the conventional crops were cancelled. Such contamination, which
can arise from gene flow or the inadvertent mixing of both types of crops,
presents a problem that is considered unacceptable by farmers, food
