From genetic risk to post-genomic uncertainties: nutrigenomics and the birth of the “genetic entrepreneur”

Through a study of the development of nutrigenomic science and its positioning for use in preventative medicine, I examine the configuration of contemporary “post-genomic” science. I argue that nutrigenomics is not radically new; rather it reinvigorates pre-existing scientific strategies studying gene function and directs them to old scientific puzzles of the complexity of living systems. Nutrigenomics does differ from previous genetic science, for it deals in uncertainty rather than risk and so sees genetic information as a resource the “genetic entrepreneur” can use to create a new, optimally healthy, future, rather than revealing a probable future for which the individual can prepare. However, in this nutrigenomics both reflects and reproduces wider biopolitical notions of health as a state of optimal wellness that individuals will seek, so maximizing their “vital capital”. The issues raised by nutrigenomics are less those of a gene science, and more those of wider bioscience and biomedicine.