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Agricultural Biotechnology Hanging in the Balance: Why the Anti-GM Food Campaign has been so Successful

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Understanding How Issues in Business Ethics Develop

Abstract

In 1996, genetically modified (GM) soybean was grown commercially in the USA for the first time. The soybeans had been made tolerant to a herbicide, glyphosate (Roundup) made by Monsanto. By growing the GM soybeans, farmers could spray the broad-spectrum herbicide on the crop without it being damaged and, thereby, weed control was made easier. Soybeans are a commodity crop and traded globally, so the GM soybeans were mixed with conventional ones and shipped across the world. As the soybeans were first imported into Europe at the end of 1996, Greenpeace revealed the movement of the GM soybeans and that they, or their derivatives (such as soybean oil or lecithin), would be found in around 60 per cent of processed foods on supermarket shelves and would not be labelled.1

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© 2002 Ian W. Jones and Michael G. Pollitt

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Mayer, S. (2002). Agricultural Biotechnology Hanging in the Balance: Why the Anti-GM Food Campaign has been so Successful. In: Jones, I.W., Pollitt, M.G. (eds) Understanding How Issues in Business Ethics Develop. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230511033_3

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