IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cog/poango/v7y2019i4p165-177.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Conflicts over GMOs and their Contribution to Food Democracy

Author

Listed:
  • Beate Friedrich

    (Institute of Sustainability Governance, Leuphana University of Lüneburg, Germany)

  • Sarah Hackfort

    (IZT—Institute for Future Studies and Technology Assessment, Germany)

  • Miriam Boyer

    (Department of Agriculture and Food Policy, Faculty of Life Sciences, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany)

  • Daniela Gottschlich

    (Institute for Diversity, Nature, Gender and Sustainability, Germany)

Abstract

The use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) embodies a specific vision of agricultural systems that is highly controversial. The article focuses on how conflicts over GMOs contribute towards food democracy. Food democracy is defined as the possibility for all social groups to participate in, negotiate and struggle over how societies organize agricultural production, thereby ensuring that food systems fulfil the needs of people and sustain (re)productive nature into the future. EU agricultural policy envisages the coexistence of agricultural and food systems with and without GMOs. This policy, which on the surface appears to be a means of avoiding conflict, has in fact exacerbated conflict, while creating obstacles to the development of food democracy. By contrast, empirical analysis of movements against GMOs in Germany and Poland shows how they create pathways towards participation in the food system and the creation of alternative agricultural futures, thereby contributing to a democratization of food systems and thus of society–nature relations. Today, as products of new breeding techniques such as genome editing are being released, these movements are gaining new relevance.

Suggested Citation

  • Beate Friedrich & Sarah Hackfort & Miriam Boyer & Daniela Gottschlich, 2019. "Conflicts over GMOs and their Contribution to Food Democracy," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 7(4), pages 165-177.
  • Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v7:y:2019:i:4:p:165-177
    DOI: 10.17645/pag.v7i4.2082
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/2082
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.17645/pag.v7i4.2082?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Biesecker, Adelheid & Hofmeister, Sabine, 2010. "Focus: (Re)productivity: Sustainable relations both between society and nature and between the genders," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(8), pages 1703-1711, June.
    2. Basil Bornemann & Sabine Weiland, 2019. "Empowering People—Democratising the Food System? Exploring the Democratic Potential of Food-Related Empowerment Forms," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 7(4), pages 105-118.
    3. Basil Bornemann & Sabine Weiland, 2019. "Empowering People—Democratising the Food System? Exploring the Democratic Potential of Food-Related Empowerment Forms," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 7(4), pages 105-118.
    4. Philip H. Howard, 2009. "Visualizing Consolidation in the Global Seed Industry: 1996–2008," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 1(4), pages 1-22, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Basil Bornemann & Sabine Weiland, 2019. "Editorial: New Perspectives on Food Democracy," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 7(4), pages 1-7.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Beate Friedrich & Sarah Hackfort & Miriam Boyer & Daniela Gottschlich, 2019. "Conflicts over GMOs and their Contribution to Food Democracy," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 7(4), pages 165-177.
    2. Basil Bornemann & Sabine Weiland, 2019. "Editorial: New Perspectives on Food Democracy," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 7(4), pages 1-7.
    3. Mark Tilzey, 2019. "Food Democracy as ‘Radical’ Food Sovereignty: Agrarian Democracy and Counter-Hegemonic Resistance to the Neo-Imperial Food Regime," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 7(4), pages 202-213.
    4. Karen Bassarab & Jill K. Clark & Raychel Santo & Anne Palmer, 2019. "Finding Our Way to Food Democracy: Lessons from US Food Policy Council Governance," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 7(4), pages 32-47.
    5. Julia Behringer & Peter H. Feindt, 2019. "How Shall We Judge Agri-Food Governance? Legitimacy Constructions in Food Democracy and Co-Regulation Discourses," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 7(4), pages 119-130.
    6. Galushko, Viktoriya & Gray, Richard & Smyth, Stuart & Arnison, Paul, 2010. "Resolving FTO Barriers in GM Canola," 14th ICABR Conference, June 16-18, 2010, Ravello, Italy 188092, International Consortium on Applied Bioeconomy Research (ICABR).
    7. Annelie Sieveking, 2019. "Food Policy Councils as Loci for Practising Food Democracy? Insights from the Case of Oldenburg, Germany," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 7(4), pages 48-58.
    8. Janet J. McIntyre-Mills & Mphatheleni Makaulule & Patricia Lethole & E. Pitsoane & Akwasi Arko-Achemfuor & Rudolf Wirawan & Ida Widianingsih, 2023. "Ecocentric Living: A Way Forward Towards Zero Carbon: A Conversation about Indigenous Law and Leadership Based on Custodianship and Praxis," Systemic Practice and Action Research, Springer, vol. 36(2), pages 275-319, April.
    9. Paul Vincelli, 2016. "Genetic Engineering and Sustainable Crop Disease Management: Opportunities for Case-by-Case Decision-Making," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(5), pages 1-22, May.
    10. Halliki Kreinin, 2021. "The divergent narratives and strategies of unions in times of social-ecological crises: fracking and the UK energy sector," Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, , vol. 27(4), pages 453-468, November.
    11. Maurer, Moritz, 2025. "Wild Experiments? Restricting Narratives in Research on Alternative Food and Agriculture Networks," OSF Preprints u2tyv, Center for Open Science.
    12. Ming Tang & Huchang Liao & Zhengjun Wan & Enrique Herrera-Viedma & Marc A. Rosen, 2018. "Ten Years of Sustainability (2009 to 2018): A Bibliometric Overview," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(5), pages 1-21, May.
    13. Coronese, Matteo & Occelli, Martina & Lamperti, Francesco & Roventini, Andrea, 2023. "AgriLOVE: Agriculture, land-use and technical change in an evolutionary, agent-based model," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 208(C).
    14. Marin, Anabel & Stubrin, Lilia & van Zwanenberg, Patrick, 2023. "Technological lock-in in action: Appraisal and policy commitment in Argentina's seed sector," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(2).
    15. Basil Bornemann & Sabine Weiland, 2019. "Editorial: New Perspectives on Food Democracy," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 7(4), pages 1-7.
    16. Paul Oldham & Stephen Hall & Oscar Forero, 2013. "Biological Diversity in the Patent System," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(11), pages 1-16, November.
    17. Richard D. Smart & Amer Ait Sidhoum & Johannes Sauer, 2022. "Decomposition of efficiency in the global seed industry: A nonparametric approach," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 43(6), pages 2133-2147, September.
    18. Mark Tilzey, 2019. "Food Democracy as ‘Radical’ Food Sovereignty: Agrarian Democracy and Counter-Hegemonic Resistance to the Neo-Imperial Food Regime," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 7(4), pages 202-213.
    19. Julia Behringer & Peter H. Feindt, 2019. "How Shall We Judge Agri-Food Governance? Legitimacy Constructions in Food Democracy and Co-Regulation Discourses," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 7(4), pages 119-130.
    20. Eric C. Davis & Ani L. Katchova, 2020. "The Impact of Bank Deregulations on Farm Financial Stress and Stability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-14, February.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v7:y:2019:i:4:p:165-177. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: António Vieira or IT Department (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cogitatiopress.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.