1 Global Rifts over Biotechnology: What Does India's Experience with Bt Cotton Tell Us?

The primal global rift around genetic engineering is between agricultural crops and all other uses – such as pharmaceuticals and medicine. Agricultural crops alone have been segregated into an object of politics and governance termed ‗GMOs ‘ (Genetically Modified Organisms). This framing is ensconced in contentious politics, law and trade, whether or not the cultivars are used in food. A second, and logically derivative, global rift divides rival advocacy networks supporting and opposing GMOs – that is, agricultural biotechnology. This rift is politically charged and administratively consequential. It hinges on two inter-related dimensions: bio-property and bio-safety. Global opposition forms around critiques of genetically engineered crops on both dimensions. New claims of intellectual property in seeds enabled by the genomics revolution in biology created conflicts over what can be owned, by whom, under what conditions, and in which nation. Claims of novelty by firms seeking intellectual property reinforce a further aspect of contention: if novel, might products of genetic engineering raise special risks in comparison with cultivars bred by different techniques? Transnational advocacy politics succeeded in framing ‗GMOs ‘ as uniquely risky plants, with corresponding global soft law for special regulation. Farmers have responded to restrictions of bot