Genes, Trade, and Regulation

Agricultural (or 'green') biotechnology is a source of growing tensions in the global trading system, particularly between the United States and the European Union. Genetically modified food faces an uncertain future. The technology behind it might revolutionize food production around the world. Or it might follow the example of nuclear energy, which declined from a symbol of socioeconomic progress to become one of the most unpopular and uneconomical innovations in history. This book provides novel and thought-provoking insights into the fundamental policy issues involved in agricultural biotechnology. Thomas Bernauer explains global regulatory polarization and trade conflict in this area. He then evaluates cooperative and unilateral policy tools for coping with trade tensions.Arguing that the tools used thus far have been and will continue to be ineffective, he concludes that the risk of a full-blown trade conflict is high and may lead to reduced investment and the decline of the technology. Bernauer concludes with suggestions for policy reforms to halt this trajectory - recommendations that strike a sensible balance between public-safety concerns and private economic freedom - so that food biotechnology is given a fair chance to prove its environmental, health, humanitarian, and economic benefits. This book will equip companies, farmers, regulators, NGOs, academics, students, and the interested public - including both advocates and critics of green biotechnology - with a deeper understanding of the political, economic, and societal factors shaping the future of one of the most revolutionary technologies of our times.

ISBN 0691113483   Pages 224 ISBN13 9780691113487 (What's this?)   Volumes 1 Publisher The University Press Group Ltd   Weight (grammes) 485 Imprint Princeton University Press   Published in New Jersey Format Hardback   Height (mm) 229 Publication date 17 Nov 2003   Width (mm) 152 Library of Congress HD9006 \.B45 2003   Spine width (mm) 22 DEWEY 338.47664   Academic level Professional / Scholarly, Tertiary education DEWEY edition DC22

		Preface
Ch. 1		Introduction and Summary		1
Ch. 2		Challenges		22
Ch. 3		Polarization		44
Ch. 4		Interest Group Politics		66
Ch. 5		Regulatory Federalism		102
Ch. 6		International Trade Conflict		118
Ch. 7		Coping with Diversity		168
		Notes		185
		References		213
		Index		225

[An] important and definitive book on agricultural biotechnology and the deepening trade dispute between the United States and the European Union... Bernauer has done a first-rate job of exploring this contentious trade issue in an understandable way. -- Dennis Pirages, Perspectives in Political Science Bernauer's book is the best single reference currently available treating the regulatory struggle surrounding GE (genetically engineered) foods and food crops... Bernauer does not just skim the surface; with remarkable stamina and a sure analytical touch he lays the details of each issue carefully and thoroughly before readers. At a moment when polemics dominate most discussions of GE food policy, the Bernauer volume has arrived just in time. -- Robert Paarlberg, Quarterly Review of Biology

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