Genetic engineering in agriculture and corporate engineering in public debate: risk, public relations, and public debate over genetically modified crops

Corporations have long influenced environmental and occupational health in agriculture, doing a great deal of damage, making substantial profits, and shaping public debate to make it appear that environmental misfortunes are accidents of an otherwise well-functioning system, rather than systemic. Th...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inInternational journal of occupational and environmental health Vol. 11; no. 4; p. 428
Main Authors Patel, Rajeev, Torres, Robert J, Rosset, Peter
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published England 01.10.2005
Subjects
Agriculture - methods
Genetic Engineering
Humans
Plants, Genetically Modified
Public Opinion
Public Relations
Risk Assessment
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Summary:Corporations have long influenced environmental and occupational health in agriculture, doing a great deal of damage, making substantial profits, and shaping public debate to make it appear that environmental misfortunes are accidents of an otherwise well-functioning system, rather than systemic. The debate over the genetically modified (GM) crops is an example. The largest producer of commercial GM seeds, Monsanto, exemplifies the industry's strategies: the invocation of poor people as beneficiaries, characterization of opposition as technophobic or anti-progress, and portrayal of their products as environmentally beneficial in the absence of or despite the evidence. This strategy is endemic to contemporary market capitalism, with its incentives to companies to externalize health and environmental costs to increase profits.
ISSN:1077-3525
DOI:10.1179/oeh.2005.11.4.428