On biases, GMOs and embracing the boring

Last week, I was quoted in the Scientific American article When GMOs Are the Movie Star by Brooke Borel. In the article, Borel tackles two important and sticky topics that have been of particular interest to me for a long time: (1) when is something a reliable source of information… or just entertainment? and (2) how do the ways in which information around GMOs are presented/shared/delivered shape our views on them? (which usually leads me to the broader question of how we form opinions around complex issues)

Or, as Borel puts it:

As a journalist who covers biotechnology… Just what is the purpose of documentary films that center around controversial science? Are they for entertainment or education? And if entertainment is prioritized over education, can a 90-minute film dutifully explore a topic as dense and politically fraught as genetically engineered food?

When we discussed this during our interview, I admit I was a bit stumped. The answer I ended up giving was both “yes” and “no.” Yes, a 90-minute film can dutifully explore a topic as dense and politically fraught as genetically engineered food, but it will probably be boring. And we don’t like boring very much these days. Nonetheless, as Borel writes, “There’s a lot to lose if the entertainment industry mangles this research or omits key perspectives in the name of a good story.”

I couldn’t agree more.

This raises an important question. Who carries the responsibility of making sure the information we receive is balanced and tells the whole story? There are two ways of tackling this question. The “perfect world” route and the “this is what we’ve got and let’s work with it” route. In the perfect world, all our producers of media give us perfectly objective stories. But that’s not what we’ve got. We can’t expect entertainment outlets (and this is what documentaries are, by the way) who have the incentive to build massive audiences to give us the full story because – as alluded to earlier – the whole story is usually boring. And they’re not going to build a massive audience with a boring story.

The onus, therefore, falls to us. As modern consumers of information, we have to be our own gatekeepers. We need to become savvy consumers of stories. And becoming savvy consumers means understanding our own weaknesses, which leads to my quote:

“I have yet to meet a single person who doesn’t have a bias towards food and [agriculture]—including myself. Most people aren’t aware that they have a bias, so they don’t do the mental work to try and stretch around that bias.” This attitude can make it harder for subtleties to enter mainstream writing and film, she adds.

I was glad that of everything I (likely in a manner one might describe as “over enthusiastically”) gabbed about and which she graciously listened to, this was what she went with. It has been weighing heavily on my mind as I reflect on why we struggle to make meaningful progress on many food and agricultural issues. Most of us are already predisposed to believe one “group” over another, or to see one side of the issue as already inherently wrong and the other inherently right. Issues tend to be emotionally fraught even before we’ve started wading into what they really are and what they imply. Not to mention, things change over time – and we may need to occasionally, *gasp*, change our minds.

If you’re at all like me, you’ve reached your saturation point of “this is a problem” when it’s not promptly followed by a “and here is my proposed solution.” The world is full of people screaming about problems. Yup, we’ve got problems. So here are my thoughts on the solution. First, let’s stop assuming we know the full story. Second, let’s be critical about our sources of information. Third, let’s be open to changing our minds about something. And fourth, can we all try to embrace boring for a moment?

Food security is neither the most exciting nor alluring of issues, but it is one of the most important. And technology will play a crucial role in how we feed the world. The decisions we make about technology today will carry major ramifications down the line. So let’s stop assuming we know everything about it, be critical about what we do read/watch, ponder changing our minds and embrace the fact that learning about it, if we’re doing it right, will likely be just a little bit boring – but well worth our time.