How We Should Rethink the Role of Technical Expertise in GMO Regulation

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...