Consumer Sovereignty, Rationality and the Mandatory Labelling of Genetically Modified Food

Abstract

<p>At the present time, there is considerable unease about the sale of genetically modified foods. This unease can fall anywhere on the spectrum from, at one extreme, outright hostility to the practice to, at the other extreme, a desire to proceed only with caution-considerably more caution than is currently being exercised by food producers. The most hostile opponents of genetic modification support an outright ban on the sale of genetically modified food and perhaps also a ban on experimentation with genetic engineering. But most community groups expressing scepticism about the virtues of genetically modified food are not giving voice to concerns that are this extreme, and we shall not be directly concerned here with opposition at the extreme end of the spectrum. Our principal concern is with a position congenial to even the most moderate supporters of caution: the view that genetically modified food should be subject to mandatory labelling.</p>