Liberal Communication Needed for Rational Practices

Abstract

The issue examined in this book has been agricultural biotechnology and the use of technical rationalism in the assessment, management, and communication of risk. It has been my recurrent argument that although the practice of risk analysis among industry technicians and governmental administrators is based on the ideology of liberalism, it is an impoverished or not fully performed form of liberalism. At stake in this poorly assessed, managed, and communicated risk analysis are billions of dollars in investments by the biotechnology industry and American farmers who have rapidly adopted varieties of corn, potatoes, cotton and soybeans that have been engineered to produce higher yields or resist pests. As a consequence of the American bureaucratic culture not learning any lessons from the dairy debate, the significant public policy divorce of rational-scientific risk and liberal-social risk continues today. The lack of public understanding, consent, trust, and discourse about the role of genetically altered milk in the future of agriculture is a prime example of the need for a broader analysis of risk that appreciates democratic values. Inclusive political analysis must become part of democratic life in America because the opinions associated with proponents and opponents of risk analysis are laden with ethical implications for the entire society.