The polarized public debate on transgenic foods has reached the point where controversy ceases to bring an incentive to generate empirical knowledge in order to make it advance, as becomes manifest from disputes flared in Brazil's Technical National Commission on Biosafety (CTNBio) since 1998. The epicenter of the regulatory paralysis is located in a restrictive conception of science and risk analysis, which according to Hugh Lacey and Denise Caruso prevent an adequate consideration of risks related to human health (such as allergies) and the environment (genetic pollution, creation of superweeds and damage to surrounding species). Such impasse can only be undone under the leadership of sectors in the scientific community that have not already been captured by that notion of decontextualized research, which leaves no room for investigating issues pertaining social and environmental sustainability.
biosafety; transgenic food; environment; sustainability