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processes against Perrow's classic distinction between loosely coupled
systems and tightly coupled systems. GM crop growing seems to qual-
ify for a rather tightly coupled system in the causal sense. For exam-
ple, once the seeds are in the fields, there is no turning back, no exit
route: burning the crops is possible, but only if the eventual safety prob-
lem has been detected in due time, that is, before the harvest. However,
these processes are also loosely or semi-coupled in the social sense. GM
crop growing itself is quite loosely coupled. Fields are spread all over
the world. Yet, because the GMO market is in the hands of just a few
corporations, one could argue that there is an element of centralization.
Hence, the term semi-coupled seems preferable.
Perrow's classic idea that buffers and redundancies fortuitously avail-
able are a major requirement for safer design is of special interest for
our discussion. In the case of GM crops, these buffers could proba-
bly never be fortuitous. One cannot yet picture a future where some
plants will naturally and spontaneously grow to encapsulate GM plants,
and become a sort of a plant-made cocoon to protect genetically modi-
fied organisms from dissemination. The whole question actually is how
to put these buffers in place rigorously with respect to two stringent
requirements.
The first one is economic. Buffer zones between GM crops and non-
GM crops have to be kept minimal, to maximize land use and minimize
GM farmers' sunk costs. In addition, because in Europe GM farmers are
responsible for applying and bearing the cost of coexistence measures
such as buffers, the smaller the fallow field the better, for GM farmers
to make enough money. The evaluation provided by Menrad, Hirzinger,
and Reitmeier in this volume (Chapter 6) gives a rather undecided pic-
ture on this issue. According to their study, two variables are of great
importance: (1) the size of neighboring non-GM seed production plots;
(2) the level of threshold for GM presence in non-GM seeds. Small varia-
tions of these factors impact the results quite substantially. Interestingly,
Menrad and colleagues stress the fact that the cost of specific stewardship
or training programs designed for farmers and aimed at helping them to
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