Which Sustainability for Europe? Policy Dilemmas over GM Crops

As the term 'sustainability' is more widely adopted, its meaning becomes more contested. It encompasses divergent accounts of the problem to be solved. These accounts can be analysed according to a three-part taxonomy: an 'environmental management' view serves to mediate (or adjudicate) between neoliberal and community views. Such a heuristic device can help illuminate controversies in particular industrial sectors. For GM crops in Europe, environmental management views have shifted in response to public protest. When several GM crops obtained commercial approval in the mid-1990s, the safety claims rested on a neoliberal concept of sustainable agriculture — 'green' commodities which reduce agrochemical usage, deploy resources more efficiently, increase productivity and so enhance economic competitiveness. In the late 1990s that basis was undermined by public protest, scientific disagreements over risk-benefit claims, and alternative models of agricultural futures. Some alternatives exemplify a community view — e.g., by promoting extensification, enhancing farmers' knowledge of how to avoid pest problems, or favouring 'quality' products, variously defined. A policy dilemma arises: governments claim to base regulatory decisions upon scientific evidence, yet it is evaluated according to one's view of sustainability. As less harmful alternative methods are developed, these serve as more stringent comparators for the environmental effects of GM crops. Biotechnology policy becomes subject to continuous debate about the environmental norms and agricultural methods which are appropriate for creating 'sustainable development'. Deliberating these issues in a publicly accountable way is a prerequisite for government eventually to take responsibility for regulatory decisions. For such issues, social-science researchers face choices about how to pose analytical questions, which are unavoidably value-laden. The choice of question favours particular types of socio-political relationships, within and beyond the research. Such an implicit politics is an inherent feature of our role. Outline