2002 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
Convention on Biological Diversity and the World Economy: Bio-globalism and the Precautionary Principle
| Project/Area Number |
13630072
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
経済政策(含経済事情)
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| Research Institution | Hokkaido Tokai University |
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Principal Investigator |
HIRAKI Takayuki Department of International Cultural Relations, Hokkaido Tokai University, Associate Professor, 国際文化学部, 助教授 (00281288)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2001 – 2002
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| Keywords | patent rights / breeders' rights / sound science / the WTO / the Biosafety Protocol / fail-safe approach / resource management / the commons |
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| Research Abstract |
This research focuses on the impacts that the development of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) has on the structural change of world economy. Though the risks that the GMOs is thought to cause to human health and ecological system are not fully assessed by scientific research, bio-multinationals and the US government have spread them to developed and developing countries. They use patent rights and donating GMO-containing foods to the countries suffering from starvation. On the other hand, the international regimes such as the UNEP and EU provided the precautionary principle in their legal framework, in order to regulate the free trade of GMOs and its derivatives. And the global civil society also adopted the precautionary principle as the basic slogan for their movement to secure safe food. This research theoretically and empirically analyzed the above-mentioned dispute between bio-globalism and the precautionary principle, in terms of the establishment of effective risk management institutions for the global society. The conclusion is that the risks and uncertainties regarding the development of biotechnology-derived foods should be assessed in a different way from sound science since there tends to be big gaps in the results of various risk assessments based on mechanic science. In accordance with this conclusion, the research stresses that civil society should take strong initiatives to establish alternative nutritional habits on the basis of the precautionary principle rather than sound science.
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