Constructing counter imaginaries a comparative analysis of social movement organizations’ framing of agricultural gene editing in the United States and European Union

The use of recently developed genome editing technologies in food and agriculture (GEAF) is a controversial social issue characterized by clashing discourses about ideal social, political, and economic orders. While dominant imaginaries about gene editing’s future legitimize and are being legitimized by widespread investment into and deployment of this technology, the critical voices of actors who hold less political and economic power have been marginalized in their development. In this article, we connect the sociotechnical imaginaries framework to insights from social movement framing theory to examine how and by whom competing sociotechnical imaginaries for this new technology are being developed and disseminated in the United States and the European Union, regions which have different histories of both state support for biotechnology and anti-biotechnology activism. Drawing on a qualitative content analysis of online communications documents published by civil society organizations who have publicly articulated opposition to some element of GEAF, we find key differences between the regions with regard to the types of participating actors, their diagnoses of relevant problems, and the degree and type of change that they envision related to food system reform. We argue that these differences in both coalitional & framing strategies, which reflect distinctive visions about the appropriate relationship between science, state, and society, have significant implications for governance, public acceptance, and future development of agricultural gene editing in the US and the EU.