Biodiversity and Global Agricultural Markets: A Comparative Analysis of GMO Regulation in Mexico and Peru.

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This dissertation is a study of the politics of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in Mexico and Peru. In contrast to most of the Latin American region—which accounts for 40 percent of global GMO production—Mexico and Peru currently prohibit certain GM crops. These prohibitions, however, are fundamentally different in character: Peru has adopted a “restrictive” regulatory approach, passing a broad, ten-year legislative moratorium on all GM crops in 2011, followed by a fifteen-year moratorium in 2020. Meanwhile, Mexico has pursued a “mixed” regulatory approach, prohibiting GM maize and soy while permitting GM cotton. Amidst these restrictions on domestic production, both countries allow and remain heavily dependent upon imports of GM crops, particularly for animal feed. This dissertation is an effort to document the origins of these policies, provide an account of why they differ, and analyze what they reveal about our contemporary regime of global food production. My findings link these GM crop prohibitions to the development of domestic discourses of a biodiversity-based national identity. In Peru, domestic groups presented the introduction of GM crops as a threat to Peru’s gastronomic identity and accompanying market opportunities as an exporter of high-value, niche products. In contrast, Mexican domestic groups presented GM crops as a threat to a national identity intimately tied to maize as an ancestral crop, while largely rejecting a market-based discourse for the protection of biodiversity. I argue that these presentations of national identity allowed domestic actors to open the public discourse on GM crops beyond its traditional domains of productivity and safety, facilitating a broader politics and more diverse anti-GMO coalition. These cases support the need to move beyond purely materialist-institutionalist approaches for the study of adoption of new agricultural biotechnologies. Particularly within crop centers of origin and biodiversity-rich countries, scholars should also consider the potential threats that a particular technology may present to cultural and symbolic (non-material) dimensions of biodiversity. This study shows that perceived threats to these resources are far from trivial and can catalyze the development of new collective identities and, ultimately, state preferences. To develop my argument, I draw upon data collected during two years of fieldwork in Mexico and Peru, including over eighty interviews with civil society leaders, scientists, farmers, government officials, chefs, and industry representatives; legislative histories and debates of GMO legislation and regulation; GMO reporting in leading newspapers in Mexico, Peru, and the US; observations from over twenty-five activist meetings during the 2020 campaign to extend Peru’s GMO moratorium; and finally, an original, nationally representative survey of attitudes toward GM crops in Mexico.