C. Neal Stewart
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195157451
- eISBN:
- 9780199790388
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195157451.001.0001
- Subject:
- Biology, Biotechnology
From years prior to the release of the first commercial transgenic crop in 1995 to the present, many concerned activists, regulators, and scientists have questioned how genetic engineering might ...
More
From years prior to the release of the first commercial transgenic crop in 1995 to the present, many concerned activists, regulators, and scientists have questioned how genetic engineering might impact the environment. No measurable negative environmental impacts have been observed for commercial genetically modified crops to date, even though several risks have been identified in experimental releases. Even so, none have approached doomsday scenarios posed by activists. The risks that have been extensively studied are gene flow from crops to weeds or crop landraces; side-effects of insecticidal transgenic proteins, such as accidental killing of monarch butterflies or beneficial insects; viral recombination; and transgene combinations. Close examination has uncovered no negative effects, but plenty of positive environmental impacts from growing crops engineered for insect resistance and herbicide resistance. Insect resistant cotton and corn kill only the insects that attempt to eat the crops and have saved several million gallons of chemical insecticide applications. Herbicide resistant soybean and corn have helped in soil conservation efforts since farmers do not have to use as much tillage to control weeds. In addition to these benefits, scientists are conducting research to produce genetically engineered plants to clean up toxins, produce plastics and biofuels, and perform other ecological services. The responsible use of genetic engineering is part of sustainable agriculture now and in the future.Less
From years prior to the release of the first commercial transgenic crop in 1995 to the present, many concerned activists, regulators, and scientists have questioned how genetic engineering might impact the environment. No measurable negative environmental impacts have been observed for commercial genetically modified crops to date, even though several risks have been identified in experimental releases. Even so, none have approached doomsday scenarios posed by activists. The risks that have been extensively studied are gene flow from crops to weeds or crop landraces; side-effects of insecticidal transgenic proteins, such as accidental killing of monarch butterflies or beneficial insects; viral recombination; and transgene combinations. Close examination has uncovered no negative effects, but plenty of positive environmental impacts from growing crops engineered for insect resistance and herbicide resistance. Insect resistant cotton and corn kill only the insects that attempt to eat the crops and have saved several million gallons of chemical insecticide applications. Herbicide resistant soybean and corn have helped in soil conservation efforts since farmers do not have to use as much tillage to control weeds. In addition to these benefits, scientists are conducting research to produce genetically engineered plants to clean up toxins, produce plastics and biofuels, and perform other ecological services. The responsible use of genetic engineering is part of sustainable agriculture now and in the future.
Mark A. Pollack and Gregory C. Shaffer
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199237289
- eISBN:
- 9780191696732
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199237289.003.0002
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
This chapter introduces the technology of genetic engineering and addresses the arguments of both its advocates and its sceptics. The chapter is organized in five parts. Part 1 introduces the new ...
More
This chapter introduces the technology of genetic engineering and addresses the arguments of both its advocates and its sceptics. The chapter is organized in five parts. Part 1 introduces the new technology of genetic modification, its purported benefits and risks, and the central concepts of risk regulation as well as their application in the US and EU in the context of rapid technological change. After presenting the US regulatory system for agricultural biotechnology in part 2 and the EU system in part 3, it analyzes and seeks to explain the causes of the regulatory polarization in part 4. It concludes in part 5 with a brief discussion of two-level games analysis, which helps model how domestic constituencies within the US and EU both empower and constrain US and EU officials when they attempt to engage in regulatory cooperation over agricultural biotechnology.Less
This chapter introduces the technology of genetic engineering and addresses the arguments of both its advocates and its sceptics. The chapter is organized in five parts. Part 1 introduces the new technology of genetic modification, its purported benefits and risks, and the central concepts of risk regulation as well as their application in the US and EU in the context of rapid technological change. After presenting the US regulatory system for agricultural biotechnology in part 2 and the EU system in part 3, it analyzes and seeks to explain the causes of the regulatory polarization in part 4. It concludes in part 5 with a brief discussion of two-level games analysis, which helps model how domestic constituencies within the US and EU both empower and constrain US and EU officials when they attempt to engage in regulatory cooperation over agricultural biotechnology.
David Wainhouse
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- April 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780198505648
- eISBN:
- 9780191728150
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198505648.003.0005
- Subject:
- Biology, Ecology, Plant Sciences and Forestry
Most tree species are undomesticated and, in contrast to agricultural crops, there is often considerable genetic variation in the expression of resistance to different pests and pathogens within ...
More
Most tree species are undomesticated and, in contrast to agricultural crops, there is often considerable genetic variation in the expression of resistance to different pests and pathogens within forests. This chapter focuses on the nature, physiological constraints, and environmental influences on resistance expression in trees. Following a brief discussion of defence theory, the genetic basis of resistance is discussed with examples of both preformed and induced resistance mechanisms in leaves, and in bark and wood. Ways of measuring resistance, the choice of appropriate discriminating assays for both insects and fungi, and the exploitation of natural variation in resistance in pest management are discussed. In practice, several defensive traits may determine the outcome of attack and this is briefly discussed under the theme of integrated resistance. In the final section, the topic of breeding for resistance is introduced, followed by a brief discussion of the potential for genetic modification of resistance expression.Less
Most tree species are undomesticated and, in contrast to agricultural crops, there is often considerable genetic variation in the expression of resistance to different pests and pathogens within forests. This chapter focuses on the nature, physiological constraints, and environmental influences on resistance expression in trees. Following a brief discussion of defence theory, the genetic basis of resistance is discussed with examples of both preformed and induced resistance mechanisms in leaves, and in bark and wood. Ways of measuring resistance, the choice of appropriate discriminating assays for both insects and fungi, and the exploitation of natural variation in resistance in pest management are discussed. In practice, several defensive traits may determine the outcome of attack and this is briefly discussed under the theme of integrated resistance. In the final section, the topic of breeding for resistance is introduced, followed by a brief discussion of the potential for genetic modification of resistance expression.
Celia Deane-Drummond
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- August 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780262033732
- eISBN:
- 9780262270632
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262033732.003.0104
- Subject:
- Biology, Bioethics
This chapter, which concentrates on the question of human moral agency and how traditional notions of conscience and virtue might apply to case-by-case uses of germline modification, highlights those ...
More
This chapter, which concentrates on the question of human moral agency and how traditional notions of conscience and virtue might apply to case-by-case uses of germline modification, highlights those features of the human person that are particularly relevant to the discussion of inheritable genetic modifications (IGM) in terms of ethical practice. It argues that freedom is an integral aspect of humanity, and specifically analyzes how far IGM is in principle a genuine act of freedom which fosters humanity. The chapter suggests that Thomas Aquinas’s understanding of conscience was best situated within his more developed sense of prudence.Less
This chapter, which concentrates on the question of human moral agency and how traditional notions of conscience and virtue might apply to case-by-case uses of germline modification, highlights those features of the human person that are particularly relevant to the discussion of inheritable genetic modifications (IGM) in terms of ethical practice. It argues that freedom is an integral aspect of humanity, and specifically analyzes how far IGM is in principle a genuine act of freedom which fosters humanity. The chapter suggests that Thomas Aquinas’s understanding of conscience was best situated within his more developed sense of prudence.
Donna Dickenson
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231159753
- eISBN:
- 9780231534413
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231159753.003.0005
- Subject:
- Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health
This chapter demonstrates how the enhancement debate embodies Me Medicine at its most questionable. “Enhancement” is defined as any medication designed to improve individual human performance, ...
More
This chapter demonstrates how the enhancement debate embodies Me Medicine at its most questionable. “Enhancement” is defined as any medication designed to improve individual human performance, created through science-based or technology-based interventions. Physical and cognitive enhancement technologies are based on the idea that an individual is obliged to create the best possible version of himself, as well as a responsibility to produce the best children. However, even adversaries of enhancement technologies rely on the language of individuality, arguing that the child’s autonomy is jeopardized in the enhancement process. In relation to this debate, the chapter focuses on two main areas: neurotechnologies, particularly those affecting the cognitive function, as well as neurotransmitters; and genetic engineering, specifically germline genetic modification.Less
This chapter demonstrates how the enhancement debate embodies Me Medicine at its most questionable. “Enhancement” is defined as any medication designed to improve individual human performance, created through science-based or technology-based interventions. Physical and cognitive enhancement technologies are based on the idea that an individual is obliged to create the best possible version of himself, as well as a responsibility to produce the best children. However, even adversaries of enhancement technologies rely on the language of individuality, arguing that the child’s autonomy is jeopardized in the enhancement process. In relation to this debate, the chapter focuses on two main areas: neurotechnologies, particularly those affecting the cognitive function, as well as neurotransmitters; and genetic engineering, specifically germline genetic modification.
Ed Randall
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- July 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780719072307
- eISBN:
- 9781781702918
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719072307.003.0005
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
This chapter looks into the introduction of genetically modified (GM) materials into food. If there is a crisis, a crisis of confidence in GM science and its use in agriculture, it can be viewed as a ...
More
This chapter looks into the introduction of genetically modified (GM) materials into food. If there is a crisis, a crisis of confidence in GM science and its use in agriculture, it can be viewed as a kind of pre-emptive or anticipatory crisis. Clear evidence that GM food threatens the health of consumers does not exist. Yet European governments have invested considerable amounts of financial and political capital in responding to public anxieties. They have invested heavily in enhancing the public's understanding of the science underpinning GM crops.Less
This chapter looks into the introduction of genetically modified (GM) materials into food. If there is a crisis, a crisis of confidence in GM science and its use in agriculture, it can be viewed as a kind of pre-emptive or anticipatory crisis. Clear evidence that GM food threatens the health of consumers does not exist. Yet European governments have invested considerable amounts of financial and political capital in responding to public anxieties. They have invested heavily in enhancing the public's understanding of the science underpinning GM crops.
Marcello Buiatti
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- August 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780262015141
- eISBN:
- 9780262295642
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262015141.003.0024
- Subject:
- Biology, Evolutionary Biology / Genetics
This chapter shows how the adaptation strategy of plants facilitates the inheritance of somatic genetic and epigenetic variations. First, it discusses the genetic and epigenetic somatic variability ...
More
This chapter shows how the adaptation strategy of plants facilitates the inheritance of somatic genetic and epigenetic variations. First, it discusses the genetic and epigenetic somatic variability in plants. Next, it describes the developmental plasticity in plants, which involves both genetic and epigenetic variations. It also discusses two examples of epigenetically regulated genetic modifications: genome shuffling and DNA amplification. Finally, the chapter emphasizes the importance of selection for coordinating different levels of heredity.Less
This chapter shows how the adaptation strategy of plants facilitates the inheritance of somatic genetic and epigenetic variations. First, it discusses the genetic and epigenetic somatic variability in plants. Next, it describes the developmental plasticity in plants, which involves both genetic and epigenetic variations. It also discusses two examples of epigenetically regulated genetic modifications: genome shuffling and DNA amplification. Finally, the chapter emphasizes the importance of selection for coordinating different levels of heredity.
F. M. Kamm
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- June 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199971985
- eISBN:
- 9780199346141
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199971985.003.0015
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy
This chapter discusses issues raised in From Chance to Choice and “Justice and Nature” by Thomas Nagel; in “Wrongful Life, Procreative Responsibility, and the Significance of Harm” by Seana Shiffrin; ...
More
This chapter discusses issues raised in From Chance to Choice and “Justice and Nature” by Thomas Nagel; in “Wrongful Life, Procreative Responsibility, and the Significance of Harm” by Seana Shiffrin; and in “Shopping at the Generic Supermarket” by Peter Singer. Among the issues considered are whether and to what degree social justice requires genetic modification for purposes of treatment and/or enhancement; what duties parents have to control the genetic makeup of, and more generally to benefit and not harm their offspring; and how genetic modification would affect the disabled.Less
This chapter discusses issues raised in From Chance to Choice and “Justice and Nature” by Thomas Nagel; in “Wrongful Life, Procreative Responsibility, and the Significance of Harm” by Seana Shiffrin; and in “Shopping at the Generic Supermarket” by Peter Singer. Among the issues considered are whether and to what degree social justice requires genetic modification for purposes of treatment and/or enhancement; what duties parents have to control the genetic makeup of, and more generally to benefit and not harm their offspring; and how genetic modification would affect the disabled.
Kevin M. Folta
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780262037426
- eISBN:
- 9780262344814
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262037426.003.0005
- Subject:
- Psychology, Cognitive Psychology
Humans crave new technology in communications, medicine, electronics, and transportation, but show reserve when new technology touches food. While the industrialized world enjoys the safest and most ...
More
Humans crave new technology in communications, medicine, electronics, and transportation, but show reserve when new technology touches food. While the industrialized world enjoys the safest and most abundant food supply in human history, the same consumers voice concern about that same bounty. This problem is multi-faceted, with origins in a lack of corporate trust, appeals to nature, an internet filled with poor-quality information, and whims of affluent consumers that spend a small percentage of their income on food. Human history has been a perennial battle against food scarcity and under-nutrition. Crop domestication and the emergence of agriculture changed that. Today’s modern technologies, led by plant genetic improvement, have provided sustained food security. Some of these technologies implement recombinant DNA technology, commonly known as genetic engineering. These new genetic technologies allow farmers to produce record yields with fewer impacts on the environment. However, these same technologies are often maligned and misrepresented by a well-funded and deceptive movement that uses soft scientific claims, misrepresentation of the literature, manufactured risk, fear, and blatant misinformation to promote their cause. Here this contemporary food war is explained, an unfortunate fight playing out at the intersection of science and food, with impacts on farmers, the environment, consumers and the poverty stricken.Less
Humans crave new technology in communications, medicine, electronics, and transportation, but show reserve when new technology touches food. While the industrialized world enjoys the safest and most abundant food supply in human history, the same consumers voice concern about that same bounty. This problem is multi-faceted, with origins in a lack of corporate trust, appeals to nature, an internet filled with poor-quality information, and whims of affluent consumers that spend a small percentage of their income on food. Human history has been a perennial battle against food scarcity and under-nutrition. Crop domestication and the emergence of agriculture changed that. Today’s modern technologies, led by plant genetic improvement, have provided sustained food security. Some of these technologies implement recombinant DNA technology, commonly known as genetic engineering. These new genetic technologies allow farmers to produce record yields with fewer impacts on the environment. However, these same technologies are often maligned and misrepresented by a well-funded and deceptive movement that uses soft scientific claims, misrepresentation of the literature, manufactured risk, fear, and blatant misinformation to promote their cause. Here this contemporary food war is explained, an unfortunate fight playing out at the intersection of science and food, with impacts on farmers, the environment, consumers and the poverty stricken.
Michael B. Bonsall
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- February 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780198853244
- eISBN:
- 9780191887710
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198853244.003.0015
- Subject:
- Biology, Disease Ecology / Epidemiology, Ecology
Understanding methods of vector control is essential to vector-borne disease (VBD) management. Vaccines or standard medical interventions for many VDBs do not exist or are poorly developed so disease ...
More
Understanding methods of vector control is essential to vector-borne disease (VBD) management. Vaccines or standard medical interventions for many VDBs do not exist or are poorly developed so disease control is focused on managing vector numbers and dynamics. This involves understanding not only the population dynamics but also the population genetics of vectors. Using mosquitoes as a case study, in this chapter, the modern genetics-based methods of vector control (self-limiting, self-sustaining) on mosquito population and disease suppression will be reviewed. These genetics-based methods highlight the importance of understanding the interplay between genetics and ecology to develop optimal, cost-effective solutions for control. The chapter focuses on how these genetics-based methods can be integrated with other interventions, and concludes with a summary of regulatory and policy perspectives about the use of these approaches in the management of VBDs.Less
Understanding methods of vector control is essential to vector-borne disease (VBD) management. Vaccines or standard medical interventions for many VDBs do not exist or are poorly developed so disease control is focused on managing vector numbers and dynamics. This involves understanding not only the population dynamics but also the population genetics of vectors. Using mosquitoes as a case study, in this chapter, the modern genetics-based methods of vector control (self-limiting, self-sustaining) on mosquito population and disease suppression will be reviewed. These genetics-based methods highlight the importance of understanding the interplay between genetics and ecology to develop optimal, cost-effective solutions for control. The chapter focuses on how these genetics-based methods can be integrated with other interventions, and concludes with a summary of regulatory and policy perspectives about the use of these approaches in the management of VBDs.
Emily Eaton
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780520292130
- eISBN:
- 9780520965652
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520292130.003.0003
- Subject:
- Sociology, Economic Sociology
On 10 May, 2004 Monsanto conceded to a coalition of organizations opposing the introduction of genetically modified Roundup Ready wheat in Canada and abandoned its application to introduce the crop ...
More
On 10 May, 2004 Monsanto conceded to a coalition of organizations opposing the introduction of genetically modified Roundup Ready wheat in Canada and abandoned its application to introduce the crop in North America. This chapter examines how this producer-led coalition defeated RR wheat by challenging the prevailing neoliberal logic that the fate of RR wheat should be decided in the marketplace according to individual choice. Instead, the farmers at the center of the anti-RR wheat coalition insisted that their distinct and collective interests as producers of food should be reflected in Canadian biotech policy and argued that wheat should remain a crop that farmers could reproduce outside of markets through the practice of seed saving.Less
On 10 May, 2004 Monsanto conceded to a coalition of organizations opposing the introduction of genetically modified Roundup Ready wheat in Canada and abandoned its application to introduce the crop in North America. This chapter examines how this producer-led coalition defeated RR wheat by challenging the prevailing neoliberal logic that the fate of RR wheat should be decided in the marketplace according to individual choice. Instead, the farmers at the center of the anti-RR wheat coalition insisted that their distinct and collective interests as producers of food should be reflected in Canadian biotech policy and argued that wheat should remain a crop that farmers could reproduce outside of markets through the practice of seed saving.
Kevin Morgan, Terry Marsden, and Jonathan Murdoch
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- November 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780199271580
- eISBN:
- 9780191917721
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780199271580.003.0009
- Subject:
- Earth Sciences and Geography, Economic Geography
Food is a long-standing productive activity which carries a number of different production and consumption attributes. However, much of the recent literature focuses on a limited number of such ...
More
Food is a long-standing productive activity which carries a number of different production and consumption attributes. However, much of the recent literature focuses on a limited number of such attributes—namely, the transformation of the food chain and, more in general, of production sites. In particular, much attention has been paid to globalization, the growing power of transnational corporations and their relentless exploitation of nature. In this chapter we argue that this kind of focus is not alone sufficient to account for the growing complexity of contemporary agri-food geography. Growing concerns about food safety and nutrition are leading many consumers in advanced capitalist countries to demand quality products that are embedded in regional ecologies and cultures. This is creating an alternative geography of food, based on ecological food chains and on a new attention to places and natures, that, as we will see in Ch. 3, reveals a very different mosaic of productivity—one that contrasts in important respects with the dominant distribution of productive activities so apparent in the global food sector (Gilg and Battershill, 1998; Ilbery and Kneafsey, 1998). Our aim is to develop an analytical approach that can aid our understanding of this new agri-food geography and can introduce a greater appreciation of the complexity of the contemporary food sector. To this end, we begin by considering work on the globalization of the food sector and by showing that recent analyses have usefully uncovered some of the key motive forces driving this process—most notably the desire by industrial capitals both to ‘outflank’ the biological systems and to disembed food from a traditional regional cultural context of production and consumption. After considering the recent assertion of regionalized quality (which can be seen as a response to the outflanking manoeuvres inherent in industrialization), we examine approaches such as political economy, actor–network theory, and conventions theory that have made significant in-roads into agri-food studies and have revealed differing aspects of the modern food system.
Less
Food is a long-standing productive activity which carries a number of different production and consumption attributes. However, much of the recent literature focuses on a limited number of such attributes—namely, the transformation of the food chain and, more in general, of production sites. In particular, much attention has been paid to globalization, the growing power of transnational corporations and their relentless exploitation of nature. In this chapter we argue that this kind of focus is not alone sufficient to account for the growing complexity of contemporary agri-food geography. Growing concerns about food safety and nutrition are leading many consumers in advanced capitalist countries to demand quality products that are embedded in regional ecologies and cultures. This is creating an alternative geography of food, based on ecological food chains and on a new attention to places and natures, that, as we will see in Ch. 3, reveals a very different mosaic of productivity—one that contrasts in important respects with the dominant distribution of productive activities so apparent in the global food sector (Gilg and Battershill, 1998; Ilbery and Kneafsey, 1998). Our aim is to develop an analytical approach that can aid our understanding of this new agri-food geography and can introduce a greater appreciation of the complexity of the contemporary food sector. To this end, we begin by considering work on the globalization of the food sector and by showing that recent analyses have usefully uncovered some of the key motive forces driving this process—most notably the desire by industrial capitals both to ‘outflank’ the biological systems and to disembed food from a traditional regional cultural context of production and consumption. After considering the recent assertion of regionalized quality (which can be seen as a response to the outflanking manoeuvres inherent in industrialization), we examine approaches such as political economy, actor–network theory, and conventions theory that have made significant in-roads into agri-food studies and have revealed differing aspects of the modern food system.
Mike Feintuck
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199269020
- eISBN:
- 9780191699320
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199269020.003.0001
- Subject:
- Law, Constitutional and Administrative Law
This book seeks to understand how the concept of public interest is and might be used, and to consider whether it is possible and/or advisable to establish a meaningful construct of the public ...
More
This book seeks to understand how the concept of public interest is and might be used, and to consider whether it is possible and/or advisable to establish a meaningful construct of the public interest. It explores some of the competing claims put forward in the name of the public interest, and identifies the strengths and weaknesses of various approaches to it. It presents case studies of how the concept of public interest is currently used in the regulation of certain industries, both in Britain and the United States, which appear to be central to individual and collective expectations of modern life. Particular attention is paid to regulation of the food supply industry and recent controversies over genetic modification of foodstuffs, in which concerns of public health and safety have the clear potential to be in direct competition with the profit-making objectives of food producers and retailers. The book also looks at how the media industries, especially broadcasting, are regulated, in pursuit of public interest standards that are found either implicitly or explicitly.Less
This book seeks to understand how the concept of public interest is and might be used, and to consider whether it is possible and/or advisable to establish a meaningful construct of the public interest. It explores some of the competing claims put forward in the name of the public interest, and identifies the strengths and weaknesses of various approaches to it. It presents case studies of how the concept of public interest is currently used in the regulation of certain industries, both in Britain and the United States, which appear to be central to individual and collective expectations of modern life. Particular attention is paid to regulation of the food supply industry and recent controversies over genetic modification of foodstuffs, in which concerns of public health and safety have the clear potential to be in direct competition with the profit-making objectives of food producers and retailers. The book also looks at how the media industries, especially broadcasting, are regulated, in pursuit of public interest standards that are found either implicitly or explicitly.
Robert Doubleday and Brian Wynne
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- August 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780262015950
- eISBN:
- 9780262298667
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262015950.003.0126
- Subject:
- Biology, Bioethics
This chapter concentrates on the introduction of genetically modified (GM) crops and foods into Britain. It describes how citizenship was reframed through the partial realignment of governance with ...
More
This chapter concentrates on the introduction of genetically modified (GM) crops and foods into Britain. It describes how citizenship was reframed through the partial realignment of governance with respect to the science, technology, and innovation politics of genetic modification. This chapter shows that Unilever tried to cope with public controversy over GM technologies in the UK. It suggests that the GM experience highlights the complexity and open-endedness of public attitudes in relation to issues involving science and government. It indicates that UK discourse and practices appear to have generated some genuinely cosmopolitan initiatives while remaining deeply affected by what is characterized as despotic insecurities and forces.Less
This chapter concentrates on the introduction of genetically modified (GM) crops and foods into Britain. It describes how citizenship was reframed through the partial realignment of governance with respect to the science, technology, and innovation politics of genetic modification. This chapter shows that Unilever tried to cope with public controversy over GM technologies in the UK. It suggests that the GM experience highlights the complexity and open-endedness of public attitudes in relation to issues involving science and government. It indicates that UK discourse and practices appear to have generated some genuinely cosmopolitan initiatives while remaining deeply affected by what is characterized as despotic insecurities and forces.
Calestous Juma
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780190467036
- eISBN:
- 9780190627164
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190467036.003.0011
- Subject:
- Political Science, Environmental Politics, Political Economy
Providing sufficient protein to a growing world population remains one of the most pressing global food challenges. The increased demand for protein has threatened the sustainability of fish ...
More
Providing sufficient protein to a growing world population remains one of the most pressing global food challenges. The increased demand for protein has threatened the sustainability of fish resources due to ecosystem degradation, climate change, and overfishing. A new outlet has emerged to tackle the fish problem: genetic modification. This is a story about a technological response to the state of world fisheries. It is also a story of the struggles of an entrepreneur who set out to commercialize transgenic salmon. This chapter explores the challenges that entrepreneurs face when championing a platform technology that paves the way for a new field of innovation. It traces the technological, social, and political dynamics of two decades of efforts to seek government approval to commercialize what would be the first transgenic animal for food purposes. The intensity of the debate reflects many of the economic and psychological factors associated with other products.Less
Providing sufficient protein to a growing world population remains one of the most pressing global food challenges. The increased demand for protein has threatened the sustainability of fish resources due to ecosystem degradation, climate change, and overfishing. A new outlet has emerged to tackle the fish problem: genetic modification. This is a story about a technological response to the state of world fisheries. It is also a story of the struggles of an entrepreneur who set out to commercialize transgenic salmon. This chapter explores the challenges that entrepreneurs face when championing a platform technology that paves the way for a new field of innovation. It traces the technological, social, and political dynamics of two decades of efforts to seek government approval to commercialize what would be the first transgenic animal for food purposes. The intensity of the debate reflects many of the economic and psychological factors associated with other products.
Alasdair R. Young
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- October 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780192845610
- eISBN:
- 9780191937835
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780192845610.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics, Political Economy
Trade agreements have become politicized because of public concerns that trade rules constrain regulatory decisions. How much international obligations constrain state behavior, however, is contested ...
More
Trade agreements have become politicized because of public concerns that trade rules constrain regulatory decisions. How much international obligations constrain state behavior, however, is contested in the International Relations literature. This book seeks to explain whether, why, and how jurisdictions comply with inconvenient international obligations. It does so through detailed process tracing of European Union policies found incompatible with World Trade Organization rules: its ban on hormone-treated beef, its banana trade regime, its moratorium on the approval of genetically modified crops, its sugar export subsidies, and its anti-dumping duties on bed linen from India. It uses the adverse rulings as the “treatment” in a “natural experiment,” contrasting the policy-relevant politics before and after each ruling. The case studies are supplemented by a qualitative comparative analysis of all EU policies found to contravene WTO rules that had to be changed by the end of 2019. The book contributes to debates on the impact of international institutions, on the effectiveness of the WTO, and on the nature of the EU as an international actor. It argues that the preferences of policy makers (the “supply” of policy change) matter more than demands from societal actors in determining whether compliance occurs. It also argues that while policy change in response to adverse WTO rulings is the norm (good news for trade), WTO members do resist obligations that would compromise cherished policy objectives (good news for legitimacy). This volume contends that the EU’s compliance performance is like that of most WTO members; it is not a unique international actor.Less
Trade agreements have become politicized because of public concerns that trade rules constrain regulatory decisions. How much international obligations constrain state behavior, however, is contested in the International Relations literature. This book seeks to explain whether, why, and how jurisdictions comply with inconvenient international obligations. It does so through detailed process tracing of European Union policies found incompatible with World Trade Organization rules: its ban on hormone-treated beef, its banana trade regime, its moratorium on the approval of genetically modified crops, its sugar export subsidies, and its anti-dumping duties on bed linen from India. It uses the adverse rulings as the “treatment” in a “natural experiment,” contrasting the policy-relevant politics before and after each ruling. The case studies are supplemented by a qualitative comparative analysis of all EU policies found to contravene WTO rules that had to be changed by the end of 2019. The book contributes to debates on the impact of international institutions, on the effectiveness of the WTO, and on the nature of the EU as an international actor. It argues that the preferences of policy makers (the “supply” of policy change) matter more than demands from societal actors in determining whether compliance occurs. It also argues that while policy change in response to adverse WTO rulings is the norm (good news for trade), WTO members do resist obligations that would compromise cherished policy objectives (good news for legitimacy). This volume contends that the EU’s compliance performance is like that of most WTO members; it is not a unique international actor.
Lorraine Daston and Fernando Vidal (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226136806
- eISBN:
- 9780226136820
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226136820.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
For thousands of years, people have used nature to justify their political, moral, and social judgments. Such appeals to the moral authority of nature are still very much with us today, as heated ...
More
For thousands of years, people have used nature to justify their political, moral, and social judgments. Such appeals to the moral authority of nature are still very much with us today, as heated debates over genetically modified organisms and human cloning testify. This book offers a wide-ranging account of how people have used nature to think about what counts as good, beautiful, just, or valuable. The eighteen chapters cover a diverse array of topics, including the connection of cosmic and human orders in ancient Greece, medieval notions of sexual disorder, early modern contexts for categorizing individuals and judging acts as “against nature,” race and the origin of humans, ecological economics, and radical feminism. They also range widely in time and place, from archaic Greece to early twentieth-century China, medieval Europe to contemporary America.Less
For thousands of years, people have used nature to justify their political, moral, and social judgments. Such appeals to the moral authority of nature are still very much with us today, as heated debates over genetically modified organisms and human cloning testify. This book offers a wide-ranging account of how people have used nature to think about what counts as good, beautiful, just, or valuable. The eighteen chapters cover a diverse array of topics, including the connection of cosmic and human orders in ancient Greece, medieval notions of sexual disorder, early modern contexts for categorizing individuals and judging acts as “against nature,” race and the origin of humans, ecological economics, and radical feminism. They also range widely in time and place, from archaic Greece to early twentieth-century China, medieval Europe to contemporary America.
Mark Whitehead, Rhys Jones, and Martin Jones
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- November 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780199271894
- eISBN:
- 9780191917608
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780199271894.003.0009
- Subject:
- Earth Sciences and Geography, Social and Political Geography
This chapter is about how we think about states, natures, and the relationships between them. Despite this book’s assertion that an understanding of the relations between states and natures is ...
More
This chapter is about how we think about states, natures, and the relationships between them. Despite this book’s assertion that an understanding of the relations between states and natures is vital for any interpretation of contemporary political life or ecological existence, it is important to recognize the growing sense of antipathy towards theories of the state within work on nature. This antipathy is based on two broad critiques of state theory—one epistemological and the other ontological. At an epistemological level, challenges to work on the state can perhaps best be understood in relation to the consistent tendency of certain strands of political theory to use the definite article when referring to ‘the’ state. Reference to ‘the’ state, however innocently deployed, implicitly suggests a clearly designated, singular entity of government. But it is precisely this view of states as sovereign, territorially autonomous containers of political life that has led to a concerted wave of theoretical criticism. The reification of a definitive vision of the state has tended to create a very narrow view of the state within certain strands of contemporary political theory. It is in this context that Rose and Miller (1992) argue that the state is nothing more than a ‘mythical abstraction’ (see Chapter 1), or an attempt to simplify the complex networks and practices through which governmental power is realized into narrowly conceived, centralized visions of authority. Consequently, to many writing within what could broadly be defined as a Foucauldian school (Hobbes 1996: 82) of political theory, notions of the state are anathema to the careful and systematic study of the governmental technologies, modes of calculation, and institutional procedures through which socio-political power is realized. At an ontological level, it is argued that even if vestiges of the mythical abstractions (or ‘fantastic topologies’) associated with state theory persist, the power of states to shape the political, economic, and social worlds has been seriously undermined. Much of the purported reduction in the state’s sovereign power has been associated with the rise of globalization and the associated socio-ecological relations and transactions that now routinely traverse national territories.
Less
This chapter is about how we think about states, natures, and the relationships between them. Despite this book’s assertion that an understanding of the relations between states and natures is vital for any interpretation of contemporary political life or ecological existence, it is important to recognize the growing sense of antipathy towards theories of the state within work on nature. This antipathy is based on two broad critiques of state theory—one epistemological and the other ontological. At an epistemological level, challenges to work on the state can perhaps best be understood in relation to the consistent tendency of certain strands of political theory to use the definite article when referring to ‘the’ state. Reference to ‘the’ state, however innocently deployed, implicitly suggests a clearly designated, singular entity of government. But it is precisely this view of states as sovereign, territorially autonomous containers of political life that has led to a concerted wave of theoretical criticism. The reification of a definitive vision of the state has tended to create a very narrow view of the state within certain strands of contemporary political theory. It is in this context that Rose and Miller (1992) argue that the state is nothing more than a ‘mythical abstraction’ (see Chapter 1), or an attempt to simplify the complex networks and practices through which governmental power is realized into narrowly conceived, centralized visions of authority. Consequently, to many writing within what could broadly be defined as a Foucauldian school (Hobbes 1996: 82) of political theory, notions of the state are anathema to the careful and systematic study of the governmental technologies, modes of calculation, and institutional procedures through which socio-political power is realized. At an ontological level, it is argued that even if vestiges of the mythical abstractions (or ‘fantastic topologies’) associated with state theory persist, the power of states to shape the political, economic, and social worlds has been seriously undermined. Much of the purported reduction in the state’s sovereign power has been associated with the rise of globalization and the associated socio-ecological relations and transactions that now routinely traverse national territories.