Regulating gene editing in agriculture and food in the European Union: Disentangling expectations and path dependencies

This study investigates how proponents and critics of gene editing in agriculture and food (GEAF) employ expectations-discourses with future-oriented impacts-as they compete to secure desired futures and mobilise social processes and resources towards their goal of influencing GEAF (re)regulation and agro-food systems within the EU. We draw on 27 semi-structured interviews and 53 Euractiv media articles to identify and analyse GEAF proponents' and critics' responses to the 2018 European Court of Justice regulatory decision that GEAF will be regulated as genetically modified organisms. Despite similar themes of environmental sustainability, food security and winners and losers in agricultural innovation systems, proponents' and critics' discourses reflect divergent expectations of GEAF. We argue that both groups link their expectations with concerns about path dependencies in technological innovations and agro-food systems, which serve to influence emerging political, public and elite perspectives on GEAF. Although to some extent performative, these concerns offer important insights that should be problematised and engaged within GEAF governance spaces. This study is conceptually framed by the socio-technical futures, path dependency and political economy of food and agriculture literature.

Automated summary

This study examines how proponents and critics of gene editing in agriculture and food utilize expectations-discourses to shape the regulation and agro-food systems within the EU. Through interviews and media articles, the study identifies divergent expectations between the two groups and highlights the influence of concerns about path dependencies in technological innovations and agro-food systems on emerging perspectives. The study argues for the importance of engaging with these concerns in the governance of gene editing in agriculture and food.