Doctoral Dissertation Research in Political Science: Regulation of Genetically Modified Seeds in Developing Countries

政治学博士论文研究：发展中国家转基因种子的监管

• 批准号: 1224079
• 负责人: Peter Haas
• 金额: $ 1.76万
• 依托单位: University of Massachusetts Amherst
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2012-09-01 至 2013-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1224079&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Political; Science

The purpose of this study is to understand how policies regarding the regulation of genetically modified seeds are made in developing countries. The research is being conducted to understand the policy options available to developing countries in managing the opportunities and risks arising from developments in agricultural biotechnology.Genetically modified (GM) agricultural seed varieties, which are in use since 1996, promise welfare increases through agricultural productivity enhancement. Their widespread adaption is advocated as the single best solution to meet the food demand of a growing world population with finite arable land, and GM varieties have already completely colonized the seed variety portfolio for certain important crops in some countries. On the other hand, there are other countries that went as far as making the release of GM seeds to the environment a criminal offense, moved by sanitary, environmental, socioeconomic concerns. While normative arguments dominate the debates, we do not have satisfactory comparative studies of such dramatically divergent policies, analyzing why they exist and how they structure the market for seeds, the most essential input for agriculture. The intellectual merit of this project is connected with its efforts to fill the gap in our understanding of these policies. The research will be confined to the commodity chains of three commercially significant crops - cotton, maize, soy - and is designed in two levels. First is a structured comparison of five countries' trajectories from 1996 to the present: Argentina, Brazil, India, Mexico, and Turkey. The second is the more detailed study of the Argentinean and Brazilian cases, where these seeds have been used extensively, but with different approaches to intellectual property rights protection and other policy challenges involved. The project should improve our understanding of why developing countries facing broadly similar international regime and market constraints end up with different policies for administering the challenge of GM seeds, and whether these policies have been consequential for the seed market in ways intended by the policy stakeholders. The research will demonstrate the latitude for policy variation available to developing countries in the context of a common international regime (agreements regulating various aspects of GM seeds and food products) constraining the behavior of countries. It will also venture to explore the micro-foundations that create the macro behavior observed at the country level. In Argentina and Brazil, by interviewing various stakeholders (politicians and bureaucrats, scientists, influential private sector and civil society representatives) the co-PI will gather data on the considerations and interests that have played decisive roles in shaping national policy. By evaluating this information together with public policy documents, industry reports, studies by agronomic and economic specialists and other secondary literature the project should improve our understanding of how said considerations and interests have been served by policy.The broader impacts are connected with the study of an important policy area that has not been subjected to scrutiny. The study will enable us to better understand policy-formation under conditions of complexity and uncertainty, and contribute to debates in political economy; international environmental politics; science, technology and society (STS) studies. It will also inform commercial groups, policy-makers, and monitoring civil society groups interested in the regulation of agricultural biotechnology.

这项研究的目的是了解发展中国家是如何制定转基因种子监管政策的。进行这项研究是为了了解发展中国家在管理农业生物技术发展带来的机会和风险方面可采取的政策选择。自1996年开始使用的转基因农业种子品种承诺通过提高农业生产力来增加福利。它们的广泛适应被认为是满足世界人口增长和耕地有限的粮食需求的唯一最佳解决方案，在一些国家，转基因品种已经完全成为某些重要作物的种子品种组合的殖民地。另一方面，还有其他国家出于卫生、环境和社会经济方面的考虑，甚至将向环境释放转基因种子定为刑事犯罪。尽管规范性争论在辩论中占据主导地位，但我们还没有对这种截然不同的政策进行令人满意的比较研究，分析它们为什么存在，以及它们如何构建种子市场，种子是农业最基本的投入。这个项目的学术价值与它努力填补我们对这些政策的理解空白有关。这项研究将局限于三种具有重要商业意义的作物--棉花、玉米和大豆--的商品链，并分两个层面进行设计。首先是对阿根廷、巴西、印度、墨西哥和土耳其这五个国家从1996年到现在的发展轨迹进行结构化比较。第二是对阿根廷和巴西的案例进行更详细的研究，在这些案例中，这些种子得到了广泛的使用，但在知识产权保护和其他政策挑战方面采取了不同的方法。该项目应该提高我们对以下问题的理解：为什么面临大体相似的国际制度和市场限制的发展中国家在应对转基因种子挑战方面最终会有不同的政策，以及这些政策是否以政策利益攸关方想要的方式对种子市场产生了影响。这项研究将证明，在约束各国行为的共同国际制度(管制转基因种子和食品各方面的协定)的背景下，发展中国家有多少政策变化的余地。它还将冒险探索创造在国家一级观察到的宏观行为的微观基础。在阿根廷和巴西，通过与不同的利益攸关方(政治家和官僚、科学家、有影响力的私营部门和民间社会代表)面谈，共同私营部门将收集有关在制定国家政策方面发挥决定性作用的考虑和利益的数据。通过评估这些信息以及公共政策文件、行业报告、农学和经济专家的研究以及其他二手文献，该项目应该提高我们对政策如何服务于上述考虑和利益的理解。更广泛的影响与对一个没有受到审查的重要政策领域的研究有关。这项研究将使我们能够更好地理解复杂和不确定条件下的政策形成，并有助于政治经济学、国际环境政治和科学、技术与社会(STS)研究中的辩论。它还将向对农业生物技术监管感兴趣的商业团体、政策制定者和监测民间社会团体提供信息。