Conventionally Bred Food Crops with Enhanced Nutrient Traits

Political responses to novel foods and crops can be specific to the new traits of those crops (agronomic versus enhanced nutrients), to the intended uses of those crops (food for people versus feed for animals), and also to the methods used to introduced those traits (conventional breeding versus genetic engineering). This article describes variations in observed political responses to three different categories of novel foods and crops: conventionally bred crops with enhanced nutrient traits; genetically engineered/modified organisms (GMOs), in this case, plant varieties with enhanced agronomic traits; and GMOs with enhanced nutrient traits. The pattern that emerges from these case studies is that both conventional and GMO crops must have superior agronomic traits in order to spread rapidly. A second pattern is that GMO crops encounter significantly more political resistance than conventionally bred crops. A third pattern is the importance of some influential interest groups, such as farmers or agribusiness, in generating political support for these new technologies.