Understanding the Public Reception of Gm Crops in the U.s

Many observers have found the public reception to GM crops to be difficult to fathom because it departs substantially from our experiences in technological innovation in American agriculture. While there have been conflicts over new technology in agriculture in American history—for example, over cotton mechanization in the South during the 1930s and 1940s which led to the massive migration of exsharecroppers, over animal growth hormones, and over confinement animal practices and technologies—for the most part new technologies have been developed and commercialized with little overt politicization. The BST conflict in the late 1980s and early 1990s was something of an exception to this rule, but by the same token it is useful to note that since 1998 or so there has been little overt conflict over BST technology. The GM crop experience, in which there has been protracted conflict that shows little sign of being abated, appears to represent a departure from previous trends of American technology adoption.