Introduction

Genetically modified food represents a unique opportunity to trace a new technology from its inception. It thereby provides a rich example within which we can examine the management of a new technology, as well as public policy towards new technologies. This chapter presents a series of hypotheses regarding industry structure, regulation, and patent policy towards GM food crops. We have designed and implemented a survey focusing on the innovations that contribute towards the production of new GM plant varieties to allow us to gather information on the plausibility of these hypotheses. This study summarizes the support (or lack of support) we found for them in our responses.

While our sample size is small, a number of suggestive findings emerge. First, we investigate the competitive structure of GM food. The industry involves a long vertical chain, moving from innovations to approved crops, to cultivation, processing, distribution, and – finally – retail. We investigate the structure of the first two stages of this chain. We find some support for our hypothesis that GM food is perceived, at these stages, as a separate industry from the traditional food sector. This suggests that the relatively high concentration ratios measured for GM food are reflective of the true concentration level of this industry. Further, they are well over the levels that generally trigger antitrust scrutiny.