Research Catalog

Title

GM food on trial : testing European democracy / Les Levidow and Susan Carr.

Author

Levidow, Les

Publication

New York : Routledge, 2010.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

Carr, Susan, 1943-

Description

xiv, 309 p. : ill.; 24 cm.

Summary

• 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.

Series Statement

Genetics and society

Subject

• Public Opinion
• Food Labeling > ethics
• Food Industry
• Disclosure > ethics
• Agriculture > legislation & jurisprudence
• Food, Genetically Modified
• Genetically modified foods > Government policy > Europe
• Genetically modified foods > Law and legislation > Europe
• Agricultural biotechnology > Government policy > Europe
• Agricultural industries > Government policy > Europe
• Food, Genetically Modified
• Agriculture > legislation & jurisprudence
• Europe

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

Analytical perspectives -- Making Europe safe for agbiotech, generating dissent -- Opening up risks, disputing un/sustainable agriculture -- Channelling participation, testing public representations -- Regulating risk, testing EU reforms -- Scaling up GM crops, testing commercial operators -- Labelling GM products, testing free choice -- Segregating GM crops, contesting future agricultures -- Conclusion: testing European democracy.

ISBN

• 9780415955416
• 0415955416

LCCN

^^2009018971

OCLC

148877786

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library