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The halal paradox: negotiating identity, religious values, and genetically engineered food in Turkey

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Abstract

The halal food markets, catering to the dietary concerns of Muslims, have grown worldwide. Literature has discussed growing halal markets, particularly meat, and competing forms of certification to address quality and other concerns of Muslim consumers. Yet, discussions about genetically engineered (GE) food in the Muslim world are comparatively new. The GE debates also do not address diversity of opinions in the Islamic world about the halal status of GE food despite efforts to reach a consensus. This paper integrates debates on GE food and halal certification. It focuses on three major issues: The factors that affect the growth of halal markets, different interpretations of GE food in the Islamic world, and the reasons for lack of consensus on the halal status of GE food through a case study of Turkey. It argues that fragmented halal markets, in which diverse actors from the state to the industry have different interests, and the complexity of GE food make it difficult to reach a consensus on the halal status of GE food. Divergence on the halal status of GE food presents further challenges for Muslim consumers who desire to access healthy and religiously proper food in global agri-food systems.

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Notes

  1. Genetic engineering and genetic modification are often used interchangeably to refer to biotechnology applications in agriculture. In this paper, I will use genetic engineering as the use of recombinant DNA and cell fusion techniques to introduce new characteristics or traits into an organism, which entails producing a piece of DNA and introducing it into the organism (FDA 2013).

  2. Out of the 56 members of the OIC, Egypt and Pakistan grow GE cotton, and Iran grows a local variety of GE rice in small scale. Turkey has legalized the import of GE soy and corn as animal feed, while Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, and Malaysia, have been legally importing GE food, additives, and seeds (Parrott 2012).

  3. The interviews were carried out in 2012 and 2013 after an Institutional Review Board approval (project number #1205-300 “Eco-Islam”: Global Markets and Muslim Debates on Genetically Modified Food) from Skidmore College, dated 11 May 2012. All interviews were conducted in Turkish, and I translated excerpts in the text.

  4. The Malaysian government authority, JAKIM, is one of the world’s largest halal certifiers (Fischer 2011). Halal certification bodies are also aware of concerns about the validity and credibility of halal certification and they choose which organizations they want to ally with based on whether they follow the same halal criteria and have strict monitoring guidelines in place (Buyukozer 2012b).

  5. Personal communication.

  6. The literature moves beyond the simple distinction of halal, which means what is lawful or permitted, and haram, which means what is not lawful to be consumed according to Islamic doctrine.

Abbreviations

DNA:

Deoxyribonucleic acid

GE:

Genetically engineered

Gida Hareketi :

Association of Health and Food Safety Movement

GIMDES:

Association for the inspection and certification of food and supplies

IWISA:

International workshop for Islamic scholars on agribiotechnology

MUSIAD:

Independent industrialists and businessmen’s association

SMIIC:

Standards and Metrology Institute for Islamic countries

TSI:

Turkish standards Institute

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Acknowledgments

I appreciate the time and effort that the editor and reviewers have taken to comment on my paper and I want to thank them for their useful suggestions to improve the paper. I also would like to thank James Helicke, Caitlin Jorgensen, and Becky Mansfield for helpful comments at different stages of the project. My gratitude also extends to the research participants at GIMDES, Gida Hareketi, MUSIAD, Directorate of Religious Affairs and Turkish Standards Institute in Turkey for their time and effort to share their experiences, opinions, and concerns.

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Atalan-Helicke, N. The halal paradox: negotiating identity, religious values, and genetically engineered food in Turkey. Agric Hum Values 32, 663–674 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-015-9585-z

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