Regulating GM Crops: lessons for next generation technologies

Genetically Modified (GM) crops occupy a unique place among risk governance approaches for modern innovative technologies. They were the first such technology to be regulated on a precautionary basis from the earliest stages of a development process that began in the 1980s and is still evolving.
Today, there are distinctively different risk governance regimes in the European Union (EU) and the USA and the roots of these differences can also be traced back to the 1980s.

This policy brief builds on a series of research projects since the 1980s, exploring the complex antecedents of the European GM crops regulatory system and suggests a broader and more robust set of policy lessons to be drawn from the experience.
http://www.genomicsnetwork.ac.uk/media/AGLS3%20-%20Regulating%20GM%20Crops.pdf