Material power and normative conflict in global and local agrifood governance: The lessons of ‘Golden Rice’ in India

Abstract

Sustainability aspects of the agrifood system play a pivotal role in today's global governance at all levels of decision-making. Questions of food security and food safety, biodiversity or the fate of local practices and values reflect some of the sources of potential conflict between states, as well as between business, state, and civil society actors. This special section aims to investigate the interaction of global and local forces in shaping the sustainability of the agrifood system. The section chooses India as the setting in which to investigate the interaction between global and local forces due to the crucial role the food demand and supply of this rising power plays in today's agrifood system. This article provides the special sections' analytical framework, which uses the interplay of material and ideational dimensions of power as a focal lens. In addition, the article applies this framework to an empirical study of the political conflict around GMO foods in India, specifically the case of 'Golden Rice'.

An innovation platform for institutional change in Ghana's cocoa sector

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