Seeds, scientists & genetically modified organisms: Genetic engineering practices and global connections.

摘要

Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) are created within a global assemblage of practices that incorporate complex, and sometimes conflicting, scientific, economic, technological, political, and cultural elements. Not all GMOs are the same; they differ J depending on, for example, the plants used or the social and scientific goals for their creation. I suggest that scientists using genetic engineering see 'GMO' as a heterogeneous category in which GMOs can take very different forms in different locations. These differences are not widely recognized outside of science by either social scientists or the media in reporting on GMOs. This tension between viewing GMOs as a homogeneous category with firm boundaries versus a heterogeneous category with many different forms makes them boundary objects. As boundary objects, GMOs must be negotiated by regulators who have to choose whether to categorize them by the suite of processes known as genetic engineering or by the differences between the products and associated risks that result from this process. Furthermore, there is a disjuncture that exists between (i) the claims that GMOs will provide widespread societal benefits in the future and (ii) the orientation of currently commercialized GMO products towards profitable markets, rather than humanitarian goals. Adopting a multi-sited ethnographic approach to examine plant biotechnology in the public sphere, I engaged in participant observation and qualitative interviews with scientists, regulators, and members of non-governmental organizations in both Canada and Colombia. Participant observation was based in a government laboratory in Canada and at an international research centre in Colombia. My findings suggest that the 'technology transfer' of genetic engineering for development or humanitarian purposes requires critical attention, as claims for future public benefits of GMOs are speculative and highly uncertain. Scientific research is an international enterprise featuring many layered connections between scientists and can therefore be considered an example of the global interconnections with which globalization is associated. However, institutional goals, available resources, and interests of the scientists create different opportunities for those in Colombia compared to those in Canada, showing the sometimes contradictory combination of connections and disconnections found in other studies of the contemporary global system.