From Big Farms to Big Pharma? Problematising Science-Related Populism from a Study of Vaccination Policy Criticism and Environmentalism

Scepticism about health/vaccination policies during Covid-19 has been considered a key example of 'science-related populism' (Mede and Schäfer, 2020) in the academic literature, which is mainly based on far-right case studies. However, criticism has also spread to various left-wing and especially environmental milieus, which is an under-studied phenomenon. By bringing together different strands of scholarly literature (mainly on vaccine hesitancy, Science and Technology Studies, and Political Sociology/Science on the relationship between populism and democracy) and relying on a qualitative research design that aims both to take account of the political heterogeneity within this heterogeneous critical field and to deepen its links with environmentalism, we aim to highlight the limits and normative implications of interpreting this criticism solely as populism, and to contribute to the elaboration of an alternative interpretive model. Qualitative research and the analysis of frame-bridging operations (Snow et al. 2018) between environmental and health claims - from Big Farms to Big Pharma, echoing the paper’s title - have led us to propose a different interpretive key, which proves useful in understanding why some environmentalist networks provided fertile ground for opposition to pandemic policies. The analysis highlighted the consolidation of worldviews in clear opposition to hegemonic values, where the critique of science finds a more appropriate explanation in a denunciation of the intrusiveness of capitalism in the production of science and the aporias of the growing scientization of politics, as well as in a rejection of 'reductivism' and a claim to self-determination that extend from the issues of food and the ecology to include the issue of health. The results of our research have significant theoretical and policy implications and are useful for rethinking operationalisation processes in quantitative research.