Winged promises: Exploring the discourse on transgenic mosquitoes in Brazil

The bioeconomy is a strategic program strongly promoted within OECD countries. This paper discusses an example of how the purposes and promises of the bioeconomy are enacted in Brazil, in line with local environmental and political specificities. We focus on scientific and political discourse portraying a technological solution to tackle dengue disease as a public health problem. The technology involves genetically modified mosquitoes that are released into the environment in order to suppress populations of disease-carrying mosquitoes. We show how the promise of tackling dengue, through technical and scientific arguments, becomes connected to political discourse about the welfare and ‘progress’ of Brazil as a nation. We argue that this connection comes about through two types of rhetoric devices that downplay risk and uncertainties in favor of the promises inscribed in laboratory-bred mosquitoes. In line with a basic tenet in the field of Science and Technology Studies, it becomes clear that science and politics are intertwined in both discourse and practice. In addition, we highlight the experimental and political character of public health interventions from a spatial perspective. The mosquitoes are set free in an environment that is considered a natural environment while at the same time responding to certain laboratory conditions such as relative isolation. In addition, the genetically modified mosquitoes, as bio-objects, are expected to act like natural mosquitoes in the wild. With these types of proximity between technology and nature in mind, we argue that the mosquitoes are meant not only to enact the pest management program they have been designed for, but also a political program claiming an avant-garde position of Brazil in a global bioeconomy.

► Purposes and promises of the bioeconomy enacted in Brazil, in line with local environmental and political specificities.
► Promise of (technically) tackling dengue connected to political discourse about welfare and ‘progress’ of Brazil.
► Rhetoric devices that downplay risk and uncertainties in favor of the promises inscribed in genetically modified mosquitoes.
► GM mosquitoes to enact dengue control but also a political program claiming Brazil's avant-gardism in a global bioeconomy.