Stakeholders’ perception on sustainability of genetically modified potato

Abstract

The importance of, but also challenges related to, assessing socio-economic impacts of genetically modified (GM) crops is receiving increasing attention among policymakers both within the EU and internationally. The Norwegian Gene Technology Act (1993) was one of the first legal frameworks for GMOs in the world with specific criteria for the assessment of contributions to sustainable development, benefits to the community and ethical justifiability. Experience has shown that practical implementation of these criteria can be challenging and that the issues to consider may differ depending on the GM traits introduced and the intended use of the GMO in question. During summer and fall of 2014 we organized two stakeholder workshops with the aim to gather perspectives on the sustainability of cultivating late blight resistant GM potato in Norway. 16 stakeholders involved in potato production in Norway took part in the workshops. The participants identified a number of conditions that GM potato with late blight resistance ought to satisfy in order to contribute to sustainable development. Among them, ethical considerations such as corporate control over genes and seed markets, transparency and openness during product development and risk assessment processes, opportunities for independent research and consumers� rights were recognized as issues that are important to consider in a sustainability assessment. The outcomes of the workshops are highly relevant for policy making and contribute to the operationalization of the assessment criteria regarding sustainable development in the Norwegian Gene Technology Act.