Contested Technology, Contested Governance: The Fight Over GMO Regulation in France

Abstract

As a member state of the European Union (EU), France has ceded sovereignty to EU authority in particular policy domains. Biotechnology is one such domain where the EU has taken on a dominant role as a regulator, particularly within the area of agriculture. Biotechnology as a policy issue area is especially important to examine because the EU has named it as one of the key technologies needed for sustainable development in economic growth and competitiveness. However, the issue of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and genetically modified (GM) products has arisen as a point of contention within this domain. Not only are states, like France, challenging the right of the EU to impose regulations that would allow for the development and promotion of GMOs and GM products within their borders, special interest groups are also challenging the right of the EU to promote products that these groups perceive as unsafe. Thus the fight over GMOs in Europe is being waged on two levels: 1) the EU vs. member states over the right to regulate biotechnology, and 2) consumer, farmer, and environmental interest groups vs. government over the rights of the government to pursue economic development and sustainability as it sees fit. A case study of France provides an excellent example of how this fight plays out. At a state-level, the French government has become resistant to accepting EU decisions in this policy area. Because of this resistance from France and other anti-GMO member states, the EU is currently considering ceding its authority over this domain. At a domestic level, the Comite de Recherche et d’Information Independantes sur le genie Genetique (CRIIGEN), the Association Consommation, Logement et Cadre de Vie (CLCV), Greenpeace France, and La Confederation paysanne (CP) have supported the non-implementation of EU policies in France by effectively drawing attention to their anti-GM cause. This paper will explore the contestation over rights that occurs within the issue domain of agricultural biotechnology. To do this, we will first review the EU regulatory regime in this area, highlighting both the underlying precautionary principle at work in food safety regulation and the structure of governance for the GMO approval process. We will then show how anti-GM interest groups have garnered support with the French public for the non-implementation of EU agricultural biotechnology regulation by employing a rights-based discourse that centers on anti-globalization sentiment.