Abstract

A High-Level Food Fight

This article focuses on genetically-modified (GM) food and the debate it incites between Europe and the United States. The so-called clash of civilizations is not limited to militant Islam against superpower Christianity, nor to wealthy nations opposed by a multitude of poor ones. A ripening conflict in globalization pits the wealthy against the wealthy -- Europe versus America -- in a fight over the cultural meaning of food. American farmers have already opened a brave new frontier in capital-intensive agriculture -- biotechnology and genetically modified crops. Having recently experienced the man-made catastrophe of mad-cow disease, European consumers are not willing to accept industry's standard assurances that GM food poses no risk to human health and safety or the environment. In response, the European Union has devised a fiendishly clever way to keep GM produce out of Europe's food system, but without violating the WTO's hallowed principles of free trade: Label it honestly. Multinational food companies will at best have to keep a segregated pipeline in production, processing and distribution -- GM-free for Europe and probably some Asian nations like Japan and South Korea, where people share the same fears, but GM-produced for Americans and anyone else who wants it.