Denmark’s regulation of agri-biotechnology: co-existence bypassing risk issues

Abstract

Three different accounts of precaution have defined the risk issues of GM crops and framed the contending views of these crops. Despite the Liberal- led Government elected in 2002, the Danish restrictive policy towards agri-biotechnology has continued because a ‘GMO-cautious majority’ in Parliament has extended precaution to several issues: the moratorium; traceability; labelling; co-existence; and liability. The reframing of GM policy around co-existence has broadened the range of politically-relevant uncertainties. For official expertise, precaution offers a means to raise new questions, to identify technical uncertainties and to justify restrictive measures. However, official expert accounts consider only biophysical risks, not wider perspectives such as hidden values and assumptions in the regulatory process, nor alternative agricultural options. In this way, the polarised Danish debate has not affected basic regulatory assumptions. Only the future will show whether marketing of GM crops would be publicly acceptable under such a regulatory framework. Copyright , Beech Tree Publishing.