Globalization and Brazilian biosafety: the politics of scale over biotechnology governance

abstract

• Monsanto's request to commercialize its genetically-modified (GM) herbicide-resistant soybean technology in Brazil sparked heated debate and protest. This paper explores the conflict and illustrates how biosafety politics and policy outcomes are highly contested and situated, rather than controlled by external forces within the ever-expanding global economy. This paper argues that GM crops are not inherently artifacts of economic globalization and trade liberalization. What makes GM crops 'global' and part of a new iterative and uneven globalization process are the new and unanticipated sites of contradiction and contestation and the multi-scaled conflict over biotechnology governance. Political strategies taken by the state government in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazilian consumer protection activists, and Greenpeace exploit the new 'nature' of GM crops as a means to expand the debate, change the rules governing the genetic commons, and consequently, rescale biotechnology governance. 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

authors

• Jepson, Wendy

published proceedings

• POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY

author list (cited authors)

• Jepson, W. E.

citation count

• 24

complete list of authors

• Jepson, WE

publication date

• September 2002

publisher

• Elsevier  Publisher

published in

• Political Geography  Journal

keywords

• Biosafety
• Brazil
• Genetically-modified Crops
• Globalization
• Scale

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

• 10.1016/S0962-6298(02)00035-5

start page

• 905

end page

• 925

volume

• 21

issue

• 7

URL

• http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1016%2Fs0962-6298%2802%2900035-5

user-defined tag

• 16 Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions