Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Finally, some important principles that are at the core of safety man-
agement in high-risk industries are presented and discussed in terms
of their transferability to GM crop growing and its operating systems.
The sections will show that technological and organizational remediation
strategies have not yet been fully laid out in the context of GM crop culti-
vation. They could constitute part of the institutional and organizational
conditions for this production to be successful, and gain widespread
social acceptance.
Parallels that can be Drawn
ContestedTechnology
GMO engineering, and notably GM farming, is a
contested
technol-
ogy much like the nuclear industry, or the chemical industry, which
have faced fierce opposition since their inception (Jaspers, 1988 & 1990;
Touraine et al., 1980). Despite the fact that some countries (France and
Japan) are nowadays using civil nuclear power with little opposition, the
possibility of a severe incident would be damaging to the entire indus-
try even in countries where public acceptance is comparatively high.
Chernobyl has not been the “big one” (meaning an accident with the
potential to kill the whole industry or technology at stake) that experts
had predicted for the industry, but it surely eroded public confidence in
the industry worldwide, as is attested to by numerous polls and surveys.
(See for example the French Institut pour la Radioprotection et la S uret e
Nucl eaire yearly “Barometer of public opinion perception of risks and
safety measures,” report, July 2007.)
In many respects, the management of GM farming activities is facing
the same kind of challenge. Similar to the nuclear experience, there are
parts of the world, where anti-GMO activists have destroyed GM exper-
imental fields (French activist Jos ´eBove has earned worldwide fame for
his actions), whereas in other parts of the world there is well-established
legitimacy for such crops (for instance, Canada and the United States).
