ABSTRACT
The emerging intersection of biotechnology with medicine, health care and agriculture identifies the growing influence of genetics in contemporary social life (Pilnick, 2002). For some, the ‘genetic revolution’ provides substantial potential for improving human health, while at the same time there are widespread concerns about ethics, regulation, commercial exploitation, civil liberties and scientific impropriety (Nottingham, 2003; O’Sullivan et al., 1999). Recent discourses in human cloning, international security and DNA forensics, along with plant and animal manipulations have further intensified and polarised debates about ‘bio-power’ and biotechnological hegemony and the role of genetics in society (McGiffen, 2005). Genetically modified foods are at the centre of these debates with concerns about health and safety. These concerns focus on the potential dangers to human health, the risks of genetic pollution and environmental degradation, the demise of alternative farming techniques as well as economic exploitation by large private corporations (Alterie and Rosset, 2002). Moreover, during 2002 advocates of GM food received substantial blows on several fronts. US GM giant Aventis CropScience, one of the largest GM companies in the world, along with Kraft Foods, Azteca Foods and AstraZeneca Garst Seed Company, agreed to an out-of-court settlement of $US 9 million brought by consumers in a classaction that alleged that genetically modified corn caused allergic reaction. In 2000, consumers discovered that Starlink, a genetically modified additive, produces the human allergen Cry9c in taco shells and corn (Franz, 2002).
