Governing Genetically Modified Crops and Agricultural Sustainability

Agricultural sustainability is at the heart of debates about environment and sustainability in a globalizing world. This chapter examines the impacts of genetically modified (GM) crops and offers an analysis of the dynamics of controversy that could contribute to the development of a particular pathway towards agricultural sustainability. GM crops and foods represent a fascinating case to examine the contested and historically contingent character of sustainability discourses. A range of new plant breeding techniques is being developed by agricultural scientists that offer radical prospects of genetic “improvement” that extend beyond genetic modification involving the transfer of genes across species boundaries. Genetic modification techniques offer the potential to “speed up” traditional plant breeding by introducing selected novel genes into a crop plant in the laboratory. For some of the Indian participants, particularly from rural areas, the actual gene used in the genetic modification of plants was seen as relevant.