Neoliberalism on the molecular scale. Economic and genetic reductionism in biotechnology battles

Abstract

New agro-biotechnologies promise bounty from fine-tuned molecular manipulation of food crops. They already provide profits and export opportunities to a few transnational seed/ agrochemical/ biotechnology firms. Against growing resistance in international arenas, industry and US government spokespeople have aggressively promoted genetic engineering, arguing that it permits precise control of life processes. However, this claim is based on a deceptive form of molecular-genetic reductionism which uses outdated notions of “genes” and “genetic codes” and disregards the interactions among molecules, organisms, their environments, and their social settings. This discourse, in turn, supports economic-reductionist arguments that genetic information should be patentable and that market-based management of biotechnology will benefit everyone. This double reductionism furthers the extension of the commodity realm to the molecular level. It treats biotechnology inputs (genetic resources) and outputs (transgenic products) as ordinary, tradable factors of production under globally standardized intellectual property regimes and bolsters proposals to regulate biotechnology under the World Trade Organization. Critics of this approach find some support in the Biodiversity Convention and its Biosafety Protocol, which would allow consideration of scientific uncertainty, socioeconomic factors, and pluralism in intellectual property regimes. They stress that natural-resource values and knowledge about nature are inseparable from place-specific ecologies, cultural practices of farming and science, and power relations.