ABSTRACT

Agri-food bio-technology policy and regulation is transitioning from an early period focused on genetic engineering technologies to ‘next-generation’ rules and regulatory processes linked to challenges originating in a wide variety of new technological processes and applications. Can lessons learned from past and current regulatory oversights of agricultural biotechnology – and other high-technology sectors – help us address new and emerging regulatory challenges in the agri-food genetics sector?

The expert contributors in this volume discuss the experiences of a wide range of North American, European and Asian countries with high technology regulation to address four key questions related to the past and future development of agri-food genomics regulation across the globe.

  • how unique is agri-food biotechology regulation, and how can it be evaluated using the existing tools of regulatory analysis developed in examinations of other sectors?
  • is a ‘government to governance’ model of regulatory regime development found in many other sectors relevant in this rapidly evolving sphere of activity?
  • is a stages model of regulatory regime development accurate? And, if so, at which stage are we currently positioned in the regulation of agri-food genomics products and technologies?
  • what drives movement between stages in different countries and sectors? In assessing such drivers, what are the key links between sectoral (meso) developments and more general macro and micro developments such as international relations and administrative behaviour?

By updating, extending and challenging earlier empirical and theoretical social science perspectives on agricultural bio-technological regulation, this volume helps to inform future policy formulation. It will be of interest to practitioners and students of biotechnology, agriculture, and science and technology policy, and regulatory processes more generally.

chapter |11 pages

Introduction

chapter 1|9 pages

Regulating next generation biotechnologies

Tentative regulation for emerging technologies

part 1|34 pages

First and second generation agri-food genetic technologies and regulatory regimes

chapter 2|19 pages

Generating regulatory futures

Beyond agbiotech blockages to a bioeconomy? 1

chapter 3|13 pages

Learning from experience

How do we use what we have learned to reform regulatory oversight of new agricultural biotechnologies?

part 2|45 pages

Regulatory regime development theory and practice

chapter 4|24 pages

Regulatory lifecycles and comparative biotechnology regulation

Analysing regulatory regimes in space and time

chapter 5|19 pages

Pragmatism revisited

An overview of the development of regulatory regimes of GMOs in the European Union *

part 3|54 pages

GMO regulatory regimes in practice

chapter 6|16 pages

Contested frames

Comparing EU versus US GMO policy

chapter 7|17 pages

The global battle over the governance of agricultural biotechnology

The roles of Japan, Korea, and China

chapter 8|19 pages

The EU's governance of plant biotechnology risk regulation

Still contested, still distinct

part 4|35 pages

Lessons from other high technology sectors

chapter 9|15 pages

Regulating nanotechnology in China

Governance, risk management, and regulatory effectiveness 1

chapter 10|18 pages

Lessons from biomedical technology regulation

North American and European comparisons 1

part 5|73 pages

Agricultural biotechnologies and the public

chapter 12|17 pages

Getting to maybe

Assessments of benefits and risks in Canadian public opinion on biotechnological innovation