Mutant Foods Unite!

June 1, 2007 7:28 AM

I have recently been hired by a biotechnology company. How do I defend myself against my crunchy granola friends?

I was hired as a graphic designer, and am not involved at all on the research/science end. I am pro-GMO's, but I don't really know how to defend myself beyond "golden rice is awesome." I know that the goal is to produce higher yield crops, and help reduce world hunger, etc. I need some resources (books, websites) that are pro-biotechnology so I can be more knowledgeable about my company's industry. Even better if they are in layman's terms that I can actually understand and repeat.

Please note I need resources on PRO-biotech. I don't need to be evangelized against GMO's. Thanks!

posted by kidsleepy to Food & Drink (34 answers total)

There was a great episode of Penn and Teller back in season one that seemed more substantive than usual (i.e. instead of yelling and cursing at someone for being stupid in the voice over they talked to actual experts and researchers) that took on this topic... They attempted to debunk some of the common criticisms about biotech research including genetic modification of crops, etc... Rent season 1, I'm pretty sure it was there.
posted by jourman2 at 7:35 AM on June 1, 2007

Are your friends against ending world hunger? If they scoff, tell them to look up Norman Borlaug -- Nobel laureate who is credited with saving a billion people from starvation through biotechnological modifications to wheat and other crops.
posted by bluenausea at 7:40 AM on June 1, 2007

Tell your friends to get over themselves? It's easy to be pro-organic food when you can afford to buy it. And biotech isn't all about making super-beefy cows.
posted by chunking express at 7:51 AM on June 1, 2007 [4 favorites]

I used to work for a company that rhymes with 'Bongsanto'. I was in IT and had nothing to do directly with their frankenfood or rBGH. My defense - 'My bills need to be paid'. Plus, I took money that I was paid there and spent it at Whole Foods.

Unrelated fun fact: There is an Oberweis across the street from the office. They stock plain paper cups so Bongsanto employees can take milkshakes back to their desk without being upbraided.

Another fun fact: I was almost disciplined for buying an Oberweis milkshake.
posted by pieoverdone at 7:51 AM on June 1, 2007

I don't have an article link handy atm, but I believe that bananas are saved from "extinction" because of the handywork of scientists (the bananas we eat don't have seeds, and don't naturally reproduce, thereby not mutating and developing resistances to fungi and bacteria). I've got to go get ready for work, but I'm sure that somebody else in the hive can provide you with some more (and more accurate) info on this.

FWIW, I've been a graphic designer for biotech/pharma co's in the east bay (chock full of granola) for many years. I'll try to think of any more advice I can provide and check back later. Generally though, if your friends are fair and diplomatic, they'll trust the source and have some faith that you didn't all of the sudden switch to the dark side. But I understand your need of good rationale to address their concerns on that front!
posted by iamkimiam at 7:52 AM on June 1, 2007

This is rough. I have no problem with biotechnology, but generally the implementations (and the lawyers) leave me a little cold. Focus on what your company does, not vague handwaving of "we will save the world through bigger crops" (which only delays the Multhusian collapse anyway). Find specific incidents of defensible improvements that don't also come with lawyers making everyone's lives miserable.
posted by adipocere at 7:54 AM on June 1, 2007

Best answer: I read Food Inc: Mendel to Monsanto--The Promises and Perils of the Biotech Harvest by Peter Pringle a couple years ago and enjoyed it a lot. It's not really pro-GMO, but it also isn't anti-. I thought it did a nice job of laying out the issues and showing that both sides have merit, and of encouraging a sensible middle route when dealing with GMOs. It's an easy read for a layman in the field as well.
posted by warble at 7:55 AM on June 1, 2007

If I were you, I'd try to get the gist of what Biotech is - I have a feeling that most granola-types don't even know why they are opposed to it, it is an example of ideology I suppose. Don't let them put you on the defensive -
posted by mateuslee at 7:55 AM on June 1, 2007

While it doesn't argue in favor of GMOs, do some research on the pesticides used on the food they eat and then ask them what seems worse: GMOs or pesticides (hint: there's a lot of gunk thats in our food, and that scares me a helluva lot more than GMOs).

See if there's scientific literature against GMOs. I'm talking research which shows GMOs are actually harmful to the health of humans. Then looks at the literature supporting the use of GMOs. Scientifically speaking, the pros far outstripped the cons last I checked 2 years ago.

Ask them to define GMOs. Some, myself included, would consider our current state of genetic modification of crops no different than planned breeding which has been done over the last couple thousand years. Same results (desired specific genes) with a more efficient means now.

And, see why they don't support them and then google the results. My college biotech profs were hardcore pro-GMO, and they had us use Internet research to find why we should support GMOs. There's a lot of stuff out there.
posted by jmd82 at 7:56 AM on June 1, 2007

I'd get a reasonable understanding of what your particular company does, how they deal with farmers, the public, and protesters, and present that as a case to your friends. I work for a competitor of pieoverdone's previous employer and, from what I've heard, there is a huge difference in corporate culture and the approach to public relations.

I'd emphasize the rigorous testing process, the ability of GMO crops to repel pests without the use of pesticides, and the fact that many seed companies have a much larger store of historical crops than any non-corporate body.
posted by mikeh at 8:07 AM on June 1, 2007

Most of your friends are anti-biotech because it's trendy and they think it makes them look cool. Find something that your company does you can talk up to them. Explain that you need the paycheck to keep up your donations to enviromental organizations and buy organic foods.

If that doesn't work for you, insinuate that you are collecting material for a tell all book exposing the industry. Be mysterious and say that you can't discuss it further.
posted by yohko at 8:13 AM on June 1, 2007

Darkly hint about the safety of their drinking water. Remark that they should no eat certain foods or their uterii may prolapse (especially effective on teenage males). Do this randomly (No, not that brocolli, take that one). Snigger when a friend mentions that they use organic food ("Yeah, like that'll help.")

Deny any knowledge of the company. Remark that a double may be responsible. Appear in public with roman numerals marked on your forehead. Use a different number for each social occasion. Blame your Computer for random mistakes.

Fear. Fear and Ignorance. These are your greatest Strengths.
posted by bonehead at 8:20 AM on June 1, 2007 [4 favorites]

Your company probably has a PR department who are already prepared to provide people on the product side with talking points -- I'm sure they're accustomed to having to answer exactly this question.

(If not PR specifically, then generally you're soaking in it; most people here don't have a biotechnology company around them, so you're in a very good position to find resources from biotech experts who have a financial incentive to help you! Use that advantage!)
posted by mendel at 8:38 AM on June 1, 2007

Find out what your friends' actual concerns are, and find information to address those. I'm completely anti-GMO (not in theory, really, but in how it's practiced), and none of the arguments or topics above would come close to allaying -- or even addressing -- any of my concerns (and, to my ears, just sound like PR talking points) or even addressing the .

Which doesn't mean they're not what your friends are concerned about, but does indicate that the first place to start your research is by listening to your friends rather than marshaling your defenses.
posted by occhiblu at 8:49 AM on June 1, 2007

Erg. Typos. Must be the growth hormones in the cream cheese warping my brain!
posted by occhiblu at 8:50 AM on June 1, 2007

Take them out for a nice dinner with the boatloads of money you'll be making and tell them to shut up?
posted by elendil71 at 8:56 AM on June 1, 2007

Tell them either we use technology to modify our environment or we can kiss the idea of 6+ billion people on the earth away. This isnt just about GMO, but any agriculture technology from using an ox to plow to man made irrigation. They all have their downsides and if your friends were alive 500+ years ago they'd be freeing farm animals and railing against crop rotation.

Secondly, its a job. Non-profit or profit. I dont care who you work for, give me 48 hours and I can find out some pretty nasty things about them. You need to pay your bills and not be a burden.

Lastly, college-age ideologies rarely work out in real life. Maybe your friends need to grow up some and need to realize that life is all about compromises and their inability to understand this doesnt mean they get to take the piss out of you because of your profession. Real friends are supposed to be happy when good things happen to you.
posted by damn dirty ape at 8:58 AM on June 1, 2007

You might very well find that Penn and Teller Episode here. I thought it made a very good argument about the sense of entitlement that anti-gmo folks have regarding the needs of the third world.
posted by BrodieShadeTree at 9:08 AM on June 1, 2007

selective breeding produces genetically modified organisms but i doubt they'd have a problem with that. Id be willing to bet their reservations are more with large corporations which you are unlikely to sway. just accept their ire and cry all the way to the bank.
posted by nihlton at 9:17 AM on June 1, 2007

Best answer: High Tech Harvest: Understanding Genetically Modified Food Plants by Paul Lurquin is a very understandable and very even-handed book on the subject. It's written by a scientist, and focuses more on the science behind GMO than the politics, but it should give some background and better understanding. When it came out, the editors at Science suggested it should be required reading material for any polititian, activist, or student who wishes to enter the GMO debate.
posted by twoporedomain at 9:35 AM on June 1, 2007

Is your company specifically agriculture biotech? Because the biotech industry covers a wide variety of products. Everything from insulin for diabetics to antibodies for cancer treatments to proteins and enzymes for medical research is produced via the biotech industry.
posted by junesix at 10:03 AM on June 1, 2007

Steal them pens?

I second warble's article. I also second the advice to manhandle your friends into being not being negative. You know their views and, as a friend, they'll have to trust you to make good decisions.
posted by cowbellemoo at 10:05 AM on June 1, 2007

GMO (and biotech in general) is very much a mixed bag. Anybody who would chide you for working at a biotech company needs to grow up and look at the real world. It's not like any other technology we use is different. They all have their ups and downs.
posted by wierdo at 10:08 AM on June 1, 2007

Humans have been genetically modifying plants from the time we first started regular crops, since oh I don't know, maybe 9500 BC. It doesn't matter if the alteration in the organism came about through preferring random mutations, selective breeding, or genetic engineering, the end result is the same: we humans have been genetically modifying the organisms we eat and use for over 10,000 years. If you toss out GMO crops, you'll also need to toss out just about every other plant and animal we eat, as well as your cat and dog, if you want to remain consistent. GMO crops have benefited humanity more than just about any other thing we've done.
posted by todbot at 11:27 AM on June 1, 2007

I think biotech really is different, though it may have some interesting parallels in the Infracambrian, where interspecies exchanges of genetic material may have been common, but by far the best argument that can be made for it is that accelerating global warming will far outstrip the rate at which our food plants can adapt to the changes-- unless we assist them with GMO technologies.

In other words, if they want to eat, GMO had better work.

Monsanto's enormous and unforced blunder has been that they continue to see themselves as a chemical company, and have used GMO mainly to try to help sell more pesticides, instead of positioning themselves to be in the forefront of corporations taking advantage of a business opportunity which will dwarf the petroleum boom.
posted by jamjam at 11:28 AM on June 1, 2007

No answers, but I love the way you phrased the question.
posted by mecran01 at 12:12 PM on June 1, 2007

I am one of your crunchy granola friends. I have also engaged in original research relating to environmental aspects of the banana industry. The suggestion above about bananas can not be used for your cause with any effect, as all of the biotech modifications in bananas were done precisely to increase production for multinational profits while the companies knew that massive chemical inputs (and the plantation model of production including exploitation of local labour) would be required.
posted by kch at 12:44 PM on June 1, 2007

Or...don't defend yourself at all. Either these people are friends or they aren't. If they aren't, better to find out now. If they are they it won't matter where you work.
posted by trinity8-director at 1:45 PM on June 1, 2007

My concern with GMO crops is that we aren't talking about little experiments in test tubes (like the genetically modified bacteria that produces insulin) but releasing this self-replicating, mutating genetic code over the entire earth. One little mistake (bug in the code) and we could be seriously fucked.

If you can come up with a good way of explaining how the code will never have bugs or unintentional side effects, maybe your friends will be happier.

Also as mentioned above, it doesn't help that companies like Monsanto are kinda evil.

btw, I wouldn't use the "I have bills to pay" defense, aka The Yuppie Nuremburg defense. It's lame. Is anything allowed as long as it makes money?
posted by kamelhoecker at 1:53 PM on June 1, 2007 [1 favorite]

I think kamelhoecker's 'btw' is important. Not all professions are equal just like not all ways of spending one's time are equal. Your friends and acquaintances have every right to change their opinion of you based on how your job affects the world. Yes, everybody has bills to pay and everybody can be criticized, that doesn't mean we have to be completely feckless, and never make a value judgment.

By the way, I don't have any strong feelings about GMO one way or the other. I said the above because some of the comments suggest that one is entitled to the same esteem from one's friends no matter what job he takes. Come on. Do you buy that? Necessity is one thing and still there are limits. More pragmatically, I don't think that kind of insensitivity towards your friends' concerns makes you a good friend nor does it increase the chances of them coming around to your point of view. They can have strongly held beliefs that result in parting ways, without them having been fake to you, or not a 'real friend' in the past

If I was in your shoes, I would be somewhat blunt, but not rude, just plain spoken. If I thought it was a good thing, I would advocate for it on the grounds I found convincing, if I didn't think it was a big deal I would say so, and if I needed a few paychecks until I found something else, I would say that. You may not mind as much as me, but I would find doing any kind of image management or public relations work with my friends a lame way to spend the time.
posted by BigSky at 3:54 PM on June 1, 2007 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: This question is less about retaining friendships and more about gaining information. I don't actually have any friends who would stop speaking to me because of my profession. I support my company and believe in what we do, but I don't want to sound like a brainwashed cult member. I just want to be able to cite tangible examples of the benefits of GMOs to those who ask.

You've given me some good starting points. I can't wait to check out the Penn & Teller episode once I get home! Any more cool books, articles, or websites I should check out?
posted by kidsleepy at 4:02 PM on June 1, 2007

The thing that bothers me about this question is that you seem to have made up your mind pro-biotech without actually understanding the issues, basing your decision, as far as I can tell, on a whim and a paycheck. I don't think you'll be able to take the moral high ground until you have understood both sides of a very complex question. Several good points have been raised here in favor of biotech, but many of them are persuasively refuted by the opposing side. If you really want to defend yourself respectfully to perceptive friends, you will have to appreciate their arguments. And if you aren't open to changing your mind yourself, then your position is not really a rational one.
posted by bricoleur at 7:20 AM on June 2, 2007 [1 favorite]

I'm with occuiblu, both content and suggestion. That is, I'm anti-GMO-as-practiced today, and I think you have to listen to your friends' objections if you want to address them. For example, my objections come not so much from ideology or a sense of entitlement vis-a-vis the 'third world' as they do from my master's degree in international development in which I looked at the on-the-ground effects of GMOs for poor farmers in developing countries. Telling me that GMOs give us high yield crops isn't going to do much to allay my personal concerns when, for example, I know that in a number of places food distribution and not production is the primary cause of poverty and starvation (i.e. many places where people starve produce enough food without GMOs to feed everybody; however, the food goes to the wealthy, including the internationally wealthy, rather than to the local poor).

This is not a screed against either you or your industry. Anyone who tries to suggest that 'biotech' is either all-good or all-bad is wrong. There are profound ethical dilemmas that have to do not just with the science of biotechnology but also the intersections of bioscience, economics, and politics. Unless you want some really heavily academic reading, I don't have much to recommend in terms of specifics. But I would advise strongly against taking too seriously anyone who paints the ethics of biotech with a single brush, be it good or bad.
posted by carmen at 8:57 AM on June 2, 2007 [1 favorite]

Having held a job in the past with some of the same stigmas, I can say that humor helped me a lot.

I worked in computational chemistry and some of the companies who used our products weren't all that nice. When my friends would tease me about it, I would simply escalate it further and make a joke about it. (FR: I can't believe you help EvilCo. ME: But the monkey slaves and mind control drugs are such good perks!)

I did this because I recognized that we were a struggling company who made a product that helped a lot of "good" research, even if it also helped some "bad" research. I did it because debating my close friends about my job isn't really all that functional.

Realize that almost nobody- not you (at least not now), probably not your friends, and not most of the people in this thread- has any idea of the actual specifics of this topic. As such, debating it is ridiculous. Friends should be friends and not debate partners unless you both have a healthy relationship, calm rhetoric, and actual knowledge of the subject.

i didn't techncially answer the question, and it's early so i'm a bit grumpy, but oh well. i at least wanted to sympathize
posted by thethirdman at 9:02 AM on June 4, 2007