Technology neutrality and regulation of agricultural biotechnology

Abstract

Agricultural biotechnology, in particular genetically modified organisms (GMOs), is subject to regulation in many areas of the world, not least in the European Union (EU). A number of authors have argued that those regulatory processes are unfair, costly, and slow and that regulation therefore should move in the direction of increased 'technology neutrality. The issue is becoming more pressing, especially since new biotechnologies such as CRISPR increasingly blur the regulatory distinction between GMOs and non-GMOs. This paper offers a definition of technology neutrality, uses the EU GMO regulation as a starting point for exploring technology neutrality, and presents distinctions between variants of the call for technology neutral GMO regulation in the EU.

Keywords

GMO; EU; law; ethics

Published in

Title: Professionals in food chains
ISBN: 978-90-8686-321-1, eISBN: 978-90-8686-869-8Publisher: Wageningen Academic Publishers

Conference

14th Congress of the European-Society-for-Agricultural-and-Food-Ethics - Professionals in Food Chains: Ethics, Roles and Responsibilities, JUN 13-16, 2018, Vienna, AUSTRIA

SLU Authors

• Sandin, Per

  • Department of Crop Production Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

Associated SLU-program

Mistra Biotech


UKÄ Subject classification

Ethics
Plant Biotechnology


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3920/978-90-8686-869-8_34

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/97761