Strategically Natural

Genetically modified foods have become a touchstone for debates on nature and technology: promises of a new generation of sophisticated agricultural products are met by charges that the technology intrudes too deeply into nature and is motivated by corporations'' desire to profit from patented seeds. In contrast, the popularity of natural health products rests in a widespread faith in the safety and health value of products from nature. This study investigates the way concepts of nature, and the appropriate relation of society to it, shape attitudes to GM foods and NHPs in Canada, and authorize the regulatory regimes of those products. It traces the different contexts that shaped the regimes'' strategies for managing risks, supporting the industries, and building public trust in the regulated products. This work will be of interest to social geographers and other social scientists concerned with use of narratives of nature and risk in regulation in order to achieve broader political objectives.