Subjects of knowledge: Epistemologies of the consumer in the GM food debate

This chapter addresses some of the processes through which the consumer of the genetically modified (GM) food debate was constituted. It explores events and positions that took place or were decisively shaped, for the most part, before the intense public debate and widespread mobilization against GM foods, and in the absence of broad and articulated consumer resistance. The chapter analyzes the strategies developed by the British food industry since the early 1990s to ensure a successful marketing of GM foods and to guarantee consumer acceptance of the new technology. It describes a particular understanding of the consumer produced by the British food industry through a variety of consumer research tools, an understanding that was central to the efforts of the industry to regulate itself. The chapter provides the governance of markets and technologies through the mobilization of consumers. It also describes "consumer research," a type of knowledge production that has received scant attention from sociologists and historians of knowledge.