As members of a primarily urban society, most Americans have very little or no contact with the sources or methods of producing their foods. Their understandable ignorance has the unfortunate consequence of leaving them vulnerable to misinformation about food and nutrition. Nowhere is this vulnerability more obvious than with respect to genetic engineering, usually misnamed genetic modification.
In an article in the January 11 New York Times, Jane Brody cites a survey from the Food Policy Institute at Rutgers University of 1,200 Americans. That survey found that 43% of respondents believed that ordinary tomatoes do not contain genes.
This level of ignorance is truly astounding. Anyone who passes a basic high school biology course should be able to figure out that all living organisms have genes. The fact that so many people are misinformed helps explain why anti-biotechnology activists have been so successful in raising spurious fears about foods that have been altered by gene-splicing.
Incessant fear-mongering by anti-biotech groups has resulted in a population that is not wiser but is instead more frightened of scientific and technological advances -- even though such advances improve their food and environment.
Ruth Kava, Ph.D., R.D., is Director of Nutrition at the American Council on Science and Health.