 Denmark: potential polarization or consensus?Jesper Toft Journal of Risk Research, 2000, vol. 3, issue 3, 227-235 Abstract: In Denmark the political debate about genetically modified products continued more forcefully when the first GM food reached the market in 1997. The focus of the political debate shifted to the commercial stage; more significant NGOs entered the debate; new forms of activism emerged. They challenged the adequacy of the Danish precautionary approach. This debate led to further conflicts -- focusing on broad concerns about risk, sustainability, ethics and value judgements. These concerns lay beyond the regulatory expertise, which has treated risk in a more narrow biophysical sense. Consequently, a former national consensus has been weakened by a new polarization. In response, the Minister for Environment has taken initiatives beyond the safety regulation: industry accepted a voluntary agreement that only GM fodder beet would be grown on a large scale in Denmark in 1999. Danish retailers made an agreement to accept GM foods only if they were labelled according to the process-based criteria of the former Danish regulation. Thus the polarized public debate has not affected basic regulatory assumptions about risk, but it has influenced initiatives outside the formal regulatory space. Date: 2000 Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:jriskr:v:3:y:2000:i:3:p:227-235 Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from DOI: 10.1080/13669870050043099 Access Statistics for this article Journal of Risk Research is currently edited by Bryan MacGregor More articles in Journal of Risk Research from Taylor & Francis Journals |
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