Consensual NIMBYs, Contentious NIABYs: Explaining Contrasting Forms of Farmers GMO Opposition in Austria and France

In: Sociologia ruralis, Band 49, Heft 1, S. 20-40

Abstract

AbstractThis article contrasts forms of farmers' resistance to genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in Austria and France. While Austrian farmers take a back seat in public opposition to GMOs, Austria's national GMO policy is designed to protect farmers, particularly organic farmers, by banning the unwanted technology. It thus mitigates both public controversy and the potential framing of the GMO issue which might go beyond a merely defensive 'not in my back yard' (NIMBY) rationale. French farmers' protest, by contrast, is highly argumentative and is very much shaped by farmers' protests. Its leading voice is the farmers' union Confédération Paysanne and its spokesman José Bové, who employ spectacular protest strategies involving the destruction of GMO fields and acts of civil disobedience and figure prominently in the anti‐globalisation movement. In discussing the reasons for these differences, the analysis examines two approaches to political opportunity structures: a general and a dynamic, policy‐specific approach.