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"GMO" maize and public health. A little case of Schumpeterian policy in the EU

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  • Tagliabue, Giovanni

Abstract

EU lawmakers have been successfully struggling for a quarter of a century to refuse the cultivation of “Genetically Modified Organisms” on the Old Continent. A clear example is given by the revision of the accepted level of contaminants in maize: rather than admitting that Bt maize is safer than “non-GMO” varieties, and therefore European farmers should be allowed not only to import it, but also to produce it, politicians have raised the threshold of the poisonous fumonisins that may be legally present in food and feed. This decision is an example of a “Schumpeterian” approach to policy, where public choices are not inspired by a science-based mind-set, but are substantially dictated by a calculus of consent: most probably, EU politicians reckoned that an adjustment of the legal level of food poison would have cost them less than the possible outrage deriving from encouraging “GMO” cultivation.

Suggested Citation

  • Tagliabue, Giovanni, 2016. ""GMO" maize and public health. A little case of Schumpeterian policy in the EU," 2016 Fifth AIEAA Congress, June 16-17, 2016, Bologna, Italy 242323, Italian Association of Agricultural and Applied Economics (AIEAA).
  • Handle: RePEc:ags:aiea16:242323
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.242323
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Zilberman, David & Graff, Gregory & Hochman, Gal & Kaplan, Scott, 2015. "The Political Economy of Biotechnology," German Journal of Agricultural Economics, Humboldt-Universitaet zu Berlin, Department for Agricultural Economics, vol. 64(04), December.
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    Keywords

    Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety; Political Economy;

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