Perception is Reality

1
Perception is Reality

• Except, Often It is Not
• Whose job is it to point this out?
• Ask Galileo if its easy.

2
The Challenge of Perception is the Potential for
The Feeling of Deception

• How Consumers Think New Foods Are Developed,
  Tested and Regulated
• How New Foods Are Actually Developed, Tested and
  Regulated

3
Learning vs UnLearning

• Its not that people dont know.
• Its that so much of what people know just isnt
  so.
• --Ronald Reagan

4
Criticisms of Recombinant DNA Technology from
Prophets, Princes, Priests and People

• Perversion
• Poison
• Promiscuity
• Profit
• Power

5
And Proof
6
Perversion

• Transfer of genes from one species to another is
  an abomination
• The realm of God and of God alone

7
Poison

• The introduced gene itself may be a poison
• Introducing new genes may turn on dangerous genes
  or turn off beneficial genes

8
Promiscuity

• The introduced gene may make the crop a superweed
• The introduced gene may flow to wild relatives,
  polluting their gene pool
• The introduced gene may flow to related weeds,
  making them superweeds.

9
Profit

• Companies are concerned primarily with making a
  profit
• Food for people, not for profit

10
Profiteering vs Propheteering
11
Power

• Biotechnology by its need for scientific
  infrastructure concentrates power in countries
  rich in infrastructure
• In their drive for profits, biotechnology
  companies
• seek patents,
• preclude the free use of the technology,
• purchase competitors,
• prevent farmers from saving seed

12
Power, continued

• Biotechnology sucks resources away from research
  and economic development based on sustainable
  agriculture, including especially organic methods.

13
The Pivotal P Word

• The Nature of Proof
• Fairness in Proof and in Proving
• Comparable Scrutiny
• What Every 6 Year Old Knows Whats Fair, and
  Whats Unfair
• What is a Fair Compare?

14
Is Biotechnology Safe?

• Yes or No
• Black and White
• Cut and Dried
• Guaranteed
• And Certain

15
Is Biotechnology Safe?

• Distinguishing between
• The Process and its inherent risks
• The Specific Gene and its inherent risks

16
Is Biotechnology Safe?

• The Possibilities Risks of rDNA are
• Greater Than,
• Equal To,
• Less Than,
• Or Different From Risks from other genetic
  modifications?

17
Is Biotechnology Safe?

• Is there evidence that gene splicing is riskier
  than other methods of genetic modification?
• Is Biotechnology As Safe As Other Methods of
  Genetic Modification?

18
Is Biotechnology Safe?

• Key principle based on 1987 report from the
  National Academy of Sciences
• Safety assessments should be based on the nature
  of the organism and the environment into which it
  will be introduced, not on the method by which it
  was modified.

19
Is Biotechnology As Safe As Other Methods of
Genetic Modification?

• 1987 National Academy of Science
• No conceptual distinction exists between
  genetic modification of plants and microorganisms
  by classical methods or by molecular methods that
  modify DNA and transfer genes.

20
Is Biotechnology As Safe As Other Methods of
Genetic Modification?

• 1989 National Research Council report
• Crops modified by molecular and cellular methods
  should pose risks no different from those
  modified by classical genetic methods for similar
  traits.

21
Revisiting the Issue of Relative Risk

• A Committee of the National Research Council has
  again reviewed the issue of relative risks of
  recombinant DNA technology
• The committees report in April 2000 reaffirmed
  that there is no evidence that the risks of
  recombinant DNA technology are different from
  those of other methods of genetic modification.

22
"Is It Safe?" vs. "Is It Safe Enough?

• Science can assess the risk
• Politics draws the threshold of acceptance
• For example, what are the roles of science and of
  politics in setting speed limits?

23
What is the Benchmark of Safety?

• How safe is safe enough?
• Should transgenic crops be less safe, as safe, or
  safer than other genetically modified crops?
• If safer,
• How much safer?
• How measured?
• How long?

24
What is the Benchmark of Safety?

• The Method of Heft vs.
• The Double Scales of Justice
• We may not know how risky two approaches are, but
  we can consider which weighs more
• Conventional Methods as the Standard of
  Acceptable Risk

25
What is the Benchmark of Safety?

• Comparable Scrutiny for Comparable Risk?
• Incomparable Scrutiny for Comparable Risk?

26
Product vs. Process

• Where lie the risks?
• Where do people perceive the risks lie?

27
Two Types of Regulations

• Regulations to protect the public from the risks
  of biotechnology
• Regulations to protect biotechnology from the
  fears of the public
• What are the benefits and pitfalls of such
  reassurance regulations?

28
How are the risks of these genetic modifications
managed and reviewed?

• Should the threshold of safety for crops
  developed using these methods serve as the
  threshold of safety for crops developed using
  recombinant DNA technology?

29
Gene Flow and Recombination in Nature

• Within a species
• Between species
• Transformation, Transduction, Conjugation, Cell
  Fusion, Viral Infection
• DNA The Carrier of Genes

30
Human Perceptions and Understanding about Genes

• Our understanding about how genes change and flow
  affects how humans convert knowledge into
  technology.
• For example, the concept of species and of
  species barrier
• For example, the developing idea of genes in
  context

31
Hearing and Speaking the Difference

• Science as Statements about Nature
• Vs.
• Science as Statements about Our Understanding of
  Nature