A phoney war?

[cakadu]

I was reading an article in the June 27th issue of the Western Producer about the biotech conference in Toronto and David Suzuki was described as a TV personality which I believe is a more apt description of who he is today than one of being a scientist. He was trained as a geneticist but his credibility (or to some people his lack thereof) comes from his TV programs more than anything else. Not that he doesn't make some good points, because he does. He often just throws out anecdotal information and as a trained scientist you would think he would be looking for scientific and logical proof that there are problems and not just throw out the cavalier statements that he does.

Sam Neill, the actor is also stepping up to the plate in terms of the biotechnology debate and he was recently quoted as saying that "in
his travels as a film star he'd found that people didn't want "tomatoes that
are part flounder and potatoes that are part toad". A pretty innocuous statement to say the least and one that doesn't impart any information or logic whatsoever.

These are the statements that garner attention and the more scientific statements are left untouched because they don't inflame or raise fear in people.

How can we start to get sound information to people? I am not for or against biotech. I am for getting sound information out there so that people can make a choice. What can we do?

[cowman]

I may be completely wrong here but I believe your average person has become so overwhelmed with all the politically correct BS that they don't pay much attention to it. A lot of these "scientific studies" are nothing more than one industry trying to smear the competition. They hire some "experts" to find the results they want! The best one I've heard lately is that vitamins don't really help you all that much in the way of having a healthy heart...much better to take a certain anti-chloresteral drug...paid for by the drug manufacturer! Toss those vitamins get on this drug and you will live forever!
I kind of like David Suzuki! Sure he's a BS artist and a showboat but is very entertaining! He would probably make an excellent used car salesman?

[carebear300]

HAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!! cowman Suzuki would be and awesome used car salesman, would have to be for Japanese imports tho.

[cakadu]

What is it that people need? A little entertainment or information that will help them to make informed choices about what it is they want to eat.

How can they make an informed choice, when the messages are mixed, non-factual and non-scientific?