Would you like gene tech with that? The Tweet Twopics
By Jason
TechNyou
Running parallel to the discussion happening inside the Science Exchange last week was a Twitter blow-by-blow account and series of alternative discussions taking different tangents to those in the physical space. Apart from TechNyou there were nine in the Twitter discussion – Full discussion found here
Some of the key points raised and being tossed around in the Tweet-a-sphere were the following:
1. Is GM all that different to traditional plant breeding? as traditional breeding still involved gene manipulation its just not technical.
2. GM is proposed as a way to help feed developing nations, but how do they access the crops or the produce, is it better for it the grown in situ or distributed?
3. Does the aim of GM make a difference as to whether its acceptable? for example the audience appeared to be far more accepting of the idea of drough tolerant wheat a opposed to rice enriched with vitamin A. which leads onto the question is this a wealthy western issue, we can afford to be disciminatory but many people can’t.
4. Why does GM present such a problem when people quite happily eat artificial products, like sweetners and flavouring. Why are GM product such a concern when artificial products aren’t?
5. What concerns people more, GM meat or GM plants?
6. The importance of labelling, who is responsible, how much disclosure is required.
Online forum happening now
Some of these discussion points will appear on the event online forum happening now
Two points to make from an audience participant perspective:
1 there was little/no discussion about the real dangers of GM. What is really at stake here? A risk analysis would have been good to guide audience thinking.
2 lack of audience involvement was a problem. Seeking a table by table comment in differing order may work. If there is no comment to make, that should be noted as that table’s comment, ie that table has nothing to question.
Hi Nicholas
First – can you post your comments to the online forum as well – http://www.genetechmenu.com
I like your suggestion about seeking comments table-by-table
As for your first point, though, what, according to yourself are the real dangers of GM? In general, I have found what one person considers a danger (real or perceived) isn’t even on the radar for someone else. And a risk analysis would have to be on a crop-by-crop basis. You could not really have a risk analysis for GM in general as each GM crop is created differently with a different trait and is used in different environments. Thus each will have a different risk profile.
Jason
TechNyou