Strategically natural: Nature, social trust and risk regulation of genetically modified foods and natural health products in Canada

This thesis investigates the way concepts of nature shape attitudes to genetically modified (GM) foods and natural health products (NHPs) in Canada, and authorize the regulatory regimes of those products. GM foods are opposed by many as unnatural, but asserted as natural by advocates, while NHPs are accepted by consumers. The main research focus is the strategic use of a categorical understanding of nature in the naturalization of contentious technologies in society, by regulatory regimes seeking social trust in the products. The thesis takes a contextual approach, supported by research on social nature, hybridity, and regulation theory, and draws on literature in several social science fields.;Part 1 builds an analytical framework that describes an alignment among different concepts of nature, society, technology, risk, and trust. A critical distinction between nature and society is nature's freedom from social intentional modification, and, for ecocentrists, the autonomous agency of nature that gives it inherent value. The social relations of a technology that transforms nature into a social product are often contentious, complicating the implementation of the technology. Regulatory institutions attempt to avoid public scrutiny of the technology and gain social trust by naturalizing it.;The case studies, in part 2, draw on government documents and other literature, and interviews with individuals involved in the regulation of GM foods and NHPs. The risk assessment of GM foods under the Novel Foods Regulations stresses health protection, but minimizes the regulatory burden on the industry, and relies on narrow definitions of nature and risk to naturalize the products and exclude contextual issues. The Natural Health Products Regulations respect the products' naturalness and minimal social intervention on which the industry depends, and are less strategic in their use of the definitions of nature and society.;The final chapter considers the key concepts of risk and technology, trust, nature narratives, and strategic regulation of controversial technology as they are manifested in the case studies. It concludes that the nature-society duality that is central to modern economic dynamism retains strategic utility for naturalizing contentious transformations of nature, as well as for critics to discern and challenge such naturalizations.