Unsound Science? Trans-Atlantic Regulatory Disputes over GM Crops

Abstract

Overall the paper will argue the following: The criteria for evidence depend upon sociocultural values, public protest and institutional responses. Consequently, it is misleading to distinguish between scientific and extra-scientific criteria. As a practical implication, regulatory science cannot readily reconcile or adjudicate conflicts over contentious products in a way which gains public legitimacy. To develop that argument, the paper has the following structure: • analytical perspectives on regulatory science; • public debate and concerns over GM products, within the USA and Europe; • environmental risk issues for Bt maize; • how the regulatory criteria changed in the USA and Europe; • implications for regulatory science.