Biotechnology risk regulation in Europe: Linking precaution with sustainable development

In the risk debate over genetically modified (GM) crops, their status as "e nvironmentally-friendly products" has been controversial The 1990 precautio nary legislation of the European Union was designed to anticipate potential harm from GMOs in advance. Yet the acceptability of harm - or even its def inition - has been contentious in evaluating commercial products. The legis lation has been interpreted in ways which implicitly link concepts of preca ution and "sustainable development". In the mid-1990s risk regulation, the European Union framed "risk" within a commitment to intensive agriculture. Its familiar hazards were accepted as a normal baseline for evaluating the effects of CM crops. The regulatory p rocedure regarded choices of crop protection measures as irrelevant or inte rchangeable, and therefore regarded some future options as dispensible, reg ardless of whether they would be environmentally preferable. Al least impli citly, safety claims presupposed environmental advantages of GM crops in re ducing agrochemical usage. That risk-framing came under challenge from widespread protest and expert d isagreements. In response, some governments applied more precautionary meas ures. They broadened the definition of the "adverse effects" which must be avoided, devised market-stage precautions for such effects, and increased t he burden of evidence for demonstrating safely. Soon the EU-wide procedure began to formalize such approaches. In the contested definitions of relevant harm, there are deeper issues abou t the sort of environment which should be protected, sustained or created. Thus GM crops have become a test case for environmental norms, within a bro ader debate about how to construct a sustainable agriculture.