The Collective Action of Firms on Regulatory Science: Mechanistic Toxicology as a Market‐Making Epistemic Strategy in the R&D Agrochemical Industry

Abstract

ABSTRACT The influence of agrochemical firms on testing and risk assessment standards constitutes a central yet understudied dimension of the political economy of agrochemicals and the formation of a corporate‐dominated global pesticide regime. How leading R&D firms—formally positioned as competitors—have converged in the production and dissemination of specific forms of knowledge, and how this convergence shapes the epistemic foundations of agrochemical regulation, remains insufficiently explored. This paper examines how, from the 1990s onward, major agrochemical firms collectively invested in mechanistic toxicology as a means of de‐risking their innovation pipelines and facilitating the regulatory approval of active substances. It argues that mechanistic toxicology, and particularly the qualification of toxicological modes of action of pesticides, became the cornerstone of a shared epistemic strategy that aligned regulatory standards with the industrial and financial imperatives of R&D‐intensive firms. By demonstrating how knowledge production operates as a strategic instrument in structuring the conditions of pesticide commercialisation, the article contributes to political economy and science and technology studies scholarship on the co‐production of markets, regulation and scientific knowledge.

The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Journal of Agrarian Change, 2026 · DOI ↗