Risks Of Transgenic Technology And The Prevention And Control Analysis

Transgenic technology has been confronted with a myriad of disputes since the date of birth. Among these, the foremost controversy should go to the risk problems brought along with this technology. Whether transgenic technology might pose a menace to the ecological environment, whether transgenic products might cause jeopardy to human health after being applied in agricultural production... All these have long been the hot issues widely concerned, as well as focus issues of contention, across all sectors of society. On the specific scale of a state, it is also a pendent issue whether transgenic technology would bring about unimaginable risks to a state’s economy and society. Rather than a simple scientific issue, transgenic technology has started to evolve into a complicated social issue concerned with political, economic, legal and ethical factors for the moment, related to the fundamental interests of states, owners of transgenic technology, production operators and consumers of transgenic foods. The complication and uncertainty of security risks of transgenic technology have presented higher requirements for risk prevention and control of this technology by government and society for the moment. This paper analyzes the potential risks transgenosis will likely bring to human health, ecological environment, food safety, social stability and more respects, from the perspective of social theories on risk, with the risk prevention and control of transgenic technology as the ultimate aim of solution, and in combination with the current world’s transgenic technology and its risk features. In reference to a series of viewpoints on risk theorists predominated by Beck and Giddens, the prevention and control measures are proposed against risks of transgenic technology.Transgenic technology brings risks to the natural environment including gene escape, volunteering weeds, biodiversity reduction, super viruses, as well as destruction of soil, etc.; imposes potential dangers to human health including declined genetically modified food security, food and nutrition imbalance, possible food toxicity and allergic reactions, etc.; causes economic risks including economic losses, trade threats, argument from supporters and dissenters with regard to the interests, as well as the risk that most technology patents may be possessed by multinational companies, etc. Socially, risks regarding imperfect laws, inter-generational ethics, and religious divergences and more may arise.The reason is mainly that transgenic technology can break the boundaries of species in the aspect of nature, thus changing the direction and speed of evolution of species, and it will lead to many potential dangers and negative effects when bringing convenience to the mankind. Politically, developed countries hold most transgenic technology patents, and governments and large companies control the most advanced transgenic technology, while numerous developing countries and the poorest countries have been at inferior position in the application of transgenic technology, but the government has not taken any steps to prevent the marriage of science and business and just ignored the problem in order to consolidate political rights. Economically, developed and developing countries are playing a game. Developed countries holding advanced technology are developing rapidly, causing severe squeeze and hit on the economies of developing countries. At the same time, after the beginning of the industrialization of transgenic technology, the traditional economic models are facing with new challenges when business opportunities have been brought to each country. Philosophically, philosophical scholars deem that the application of transgenic technology imposes a substantial harm on the ecological environment and human health, which is incompatible with the principles of ethics. At the same time, they highly praise the “science” and “prudence” principles, and they believe that a comprehensive ethics evaluation of safety is needed to be conducted before industrializing transgenic technology. In the aspect of religion, the effect of being unconsciously influenced exists. Once a foreign gene offending the religious taboo was transferred to their usual food eaten, it would be strongly against by religious people. If the labeling system is denied all the time, it may cause religious divergences, and lead to social conflicts.When studying the issue of risks of transgenic technology, this paper lays an emphasis on risk’s social magnification effect. The formation of risks of modern technology is a conduct of interaction between objective factors and subjective ones. In June 1988, Researchers Kasperson, Runne et al. from Clark University and Policy-Making Institute raised a new risk analysis framework called “the social magnification of risk” to analyze the interaction and mutual effects among various factors, such as technology, economy, society, institution, culture and psychology, in the forming process of risks. In pertinence to this theory, the author believes the rapid development of current technology has made risks no longer limited merely to technology itself, but a sort of risk expansion on the social scale. From emergence till now, transgenic technology has not posed immediate consequences such as casualties, loss of properties and environmental pollution, etc. However, transgenic technology has triggered significant secondary effects. Rather than having actually posed substantive hazards for the moment, transgenic technology has created a continuously magnifying process of feared state of mind towards this technology. Therefore, taking risk’s social magnification effect as an entry point into the study on risk prevention and control of transgenic technology acts a vital role in theoretical direction and leading.This paper focuses on discussions on the ways of risk prevention and control of transgenic technology. Based on the analysis on manifestations and feasibility of risk prevention and control of transgenic technology, with strengthening of the risk prevention and control capability of transgenic technology as the main objectives and principles, the paper proposes system innovation, clearer labeling system, improved information disclosure, more public participation, improved ability of governance by government, and much more attention to the role played by the public on the social level; suggests the intellectual property protection mechanism, perfection of legal system, formulation and improvement of transgenic security risk emergency management system, and the legislation for improvement of liability for transgenic technology security risk and damage from a legal perspective; advocates to strengthen the economic control, and to participate in the formulation and amending of international trade rules as well as to take full advantage of technical barriers economically; and puts forward the effect of “the social magnification of risk” as well as the enlightenment learned from the mechanism, and calls for the establishment of information disclosure system, strengthening construction of the network media, the re-cognition of cultural psychology, and correct guidance of public opinion from the perspective of cultural psychology. By studying the constitution of the risk in terms of society, law, economy, and cultural psychology, the paper presents suggestions for transgenic technology risk prevention and control, so as to strengthen the risk prevention and control capacity and improve the overall level of risk prevention and control of transgenic technology.