To Feed the World: genetic modification, food insecurity and the risks to human health and the environment

Abstract

This paper aims to interlace brief reflections about food security concerning the use of so-called “transgenic technology” that marked the New Green Revolution (the 2nd GR) since the 1990s. At the heart of the debate is an epistemological critique of the ruling paradigms in the human relationship with nature (highlighted here by the food’s production): ideologies of production and the freely domination and manipulation of the environment. The benefits arising from such practices in economic and political speeches contrast with the evidence of risks to human health grounded in scientific tests. More than a humanitarian movement against “hunger”, the current food security policies seems to be nothing more than a practical result of scientific paradigms founded on precapitalists rationality from the past, such as colonialism / scientific imperialism. To understand this phenomenon broadly, an epistemological critique is imperative.