Doctoral Dissertation Research in Political Science: Regulation of Genetically Modified Seeds in Developing Countries

University Of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst MA

Investigators

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to understand how policies regarding the regulation of genetically modified seeds are made in developing countries. The research is being conducted to understand the policy options available to developing countries in managing the opportunities and risks arising from developments in agricultural biotechnology. Genetically modified (GM) agricultural seed varieties, which are in use since 1996, promise welfare increases through agricultural productivity enhancement. Their widespread adaption is advocated as the single best solution to meet the food demand of a growing world population with finite arable land, and GM varieties have already completely colonized the seed variety portfolio for certain important crops in some countries. On the other hand, there are other countries that went as far as making the release of GM seeds to the environment a criminal offense, moved by sanitary, environmental, socioeconomic concerns. While normative arguments dominate the debates, we do not have satisfactory comparative studies of such dramatically divergent policies, analyzing why they exist and how they structure the market for seeds, the most essential input for agriculture. The intellectual merit of this project is connected with its efforts to fill the gap in our understanding of these policies. The research will be confined to the commodity chains of three commercially significant crops - cotton, maize, soy - and is designed in two levels. First is a structured comparison of five countries' trajectories from 1996 to the present: Argentina, Brazil, India, Mexico, and Turkey. The second is the more detailed study of the Argentinean and Brazilian cases, where these seeds have been used extensively, but with different approaches to intellectual property rights protection and other policy challenges involved. The project should improve our understanding of why developing countries facing broadly similar international regime and market constraints end up with different policies for administering the challenge of GM seeds, and whether these policies have been consequential for the seed market in ways intended by the policy stakeholders. The research will demonstrate the latitude for policy variation available to developing countries in the context of a common international regime (agreements regulating various aspects of GM seeds and food products) constraining the behavior of countries. It will also venture to explore the micro-foundations that create the macro behavior observed at the country level. In Argentina and Brazil, by interviewing various stakeholders (politicians and bureaucrats, scientists, influential private sector and civil society representatives) the co-PI will gather data on the considerations and interests that have played decisive roles in shaping national policy. By evaluating this information together with public policy documents, industry reports, studies by agronomic and economic specialists and other secondary literature the project should improve our understanding of how said considerations and interests have been served by policy. The broader impacts are connected with the study of an important policy area that has not been subjected to scrutiny. The study will enable us to better understand policy-formation under conditions of complexity and uncertainty, and contribute to debates in political economy; international environmental politics; science, technology and society (STS) studies. It will also inform commercial groups, policy-makers, and monitoring civil society groups interested in the regulation of agricultural biotechnology.