Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 23
Cultural Politics of
Food Safety
Genetically Modified Food in France, Japan, and the
United States
Kyoko Sato
Introduction
The world's food supply has benefited tremendously from modern developments in
agriculture, such as the steady introduction of new production technologies and the
well-coordinated global systems of distribution. Conversely, these same characteristics
that have enabled the abundance and quality of diverse and affordable food in industri-
alized countries have also presented new uncertainties and conflicts. The crisis of mad
cow disease (bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE), for example, revealed new
challenges to global regulatory authorities in ensuring food safety, including the neces-
sity of global cooperation and coordination in regulation and information management.
Genetically modified (GM) food—products made with modern biotechnology,
especially genetic engineering or recombinant DNA (rDNA) technology—is a new
global commodity that both challenges national authorities and reveals the persistent
significance of the national. The global nature of the commodity is strikingly evident.
Transnational corporations are prominent in development and production, and biotech
seeds and food circulate globally. International rules have been worked out for coordi-
nating trade, safety, and protection of biodiversity; opposition is notable for its presence
in extensive transnational advocacy networks. Nevertheless, regulatory approaches and
public responses to GM food exhibit striking national differences. In France and Japan,
GM food has been ardently discussed in terms of risk since the late 1990s and cautiously
addressed as a food-safety issue, subjected to mandatory safety evaluation and label-
ing, and avoided vigilantly by many consumers. In the United States, however, the safety
of transgenic food has not garnered the same kind of policy response or far-reaching
public attention. Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) have spread widely through
American farmland and the American food supply since the mid-1990s, with little of the
 
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