How We Should Rethink the Role of Technical Expertise in GMO Regulation
By Dhvani Mehta and Yashaswini Mittal,
The Wire
| 08. 31. 2015
[India]
On August 24, it was reported that the former Union Agriculture Minister, Sharad Pawar, had written to the Prime Minister recommending that he intervene to remove an existing rule that requires a no-objection certificate (NOC) from the relevant state government before field trials for genetically modified (GM) crops may be permitted. Pawar argued that the requirement of obtaining consent from state governments had become a “socio-political process rather than an objective, science-based process of rigorous evaluation at the state level” (emphasis added).
Whether or not one sides with Pawar’s view that the regulatory regime on GM crops ought to be eased, there are two fundamental problems with the statement that he offers in justification. The first assumes that the influence of social and political factors on a decision-making process that will have an impact on thousands of livelihoods and the natural environment is somehow inappropriate and undesirable. The second, which is a corollary of the first, is an unshakeable belief in the ability of science to be neutral and to guide us to the ‘correct’ decision.
Pawar is not the...
Related Articles
By Alondra Nelson, Science | 09.11.2025
In the United States, the summer of 2025 will be remembered as artificial intelligence’s (AI’s) cruel summer—a season when the unheeded risks and dangers of AI became undeniably clear. Recent months have made visible the stakes of the unchecked use...
By Emma McDonald Kennedy
| 09.25.2025
In the leadup to the 2024 election, Donald Trump repeatedly promised to make IVF more accessible. He made the commitment central to his campaign, even referring to himself as the “father of IVF.” In his first month in office, Trump issued an executive order promising to expand IVF access. The order set a 90-day deadline for policy recommendations for “lowering costs and reducing barriers to IVF,” although it didn’t make any substantive reproductive healthcare policy changes.
The response to the...
By Johana Bhuiyan, The Guardian | 09.23.2025
In March 2021, a 25-year-old US citizen was traveling through Chicago’s Midway airport when they were stopped by US border patrol agents. Though charged with no crime, the 25-year-old was subjected to a cheek swab to collect their DNA, which...
By Julie Métraux, Mother Jones | 09.23.2025