United in Protest? The European Struggle over Genetically Modified Food

Abstract

This chapter probes the structural transformation and convergence of public discourses in Europe against the backdrop of debates on the legitimacy of ‘green’ biotechnology and its uses in the agrifood sector. The findings of our second case study will be contrasted with those reported in the previous chapter to validate the claim that the Europeanization of national discourses is no uniform process but may be expected to vary across policy fields and issue areas. Like the military interventions examined above, the development and commercialization of genetically modified (GM) seeds and crops, fodder, and food products has received much political and media attention since the early 1990s.