When genetically engineered seeds were first deployed in theAmericas in the mid-1990s, the biotechnology industry and its partnersenvisaged a world in which their crops would be widely accepted as thefood of the future. Critics, however, raised a variety of social,environmental, economic, and health concerns. This book traces theemergence of the 2000 Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety – andthe discourse of precaution toward GEOs that the protocolinstitutionalized internationally. Peter Andrée explains this reversalin the "common-sense" understanding of genetic engineering,and discusses the new debates it has engendered.