Analyze The Scientific American Article: The Truth About Genetically Modified Food
Analyze the Scientific American Article: The Truth about Genetically Modified Food
By David H. Freedman retrieved from https://www(dot)scientificamerican(dot)com/article/the-truth-about-genetically-modified-food/?redirect=1
Instructions
You will be writing a 500 word essay not including title page and references of the article provided above. Include the link to the source,or publication for the article and briefly (1 paragraph) explaining the key informational points you found on the source web page. Locate the people, organization, or group that is responsible for the website, blog, etc. This is usually found under the “About Us” heading. Investigate this organization and any sponsors: Who are they? What is their goal or agenda for producing the article, web page, blog, etc.?Try to answer all the questions listed below within your essay.
• Do the listed sponsors have any affiliations that make you think there is a biased approach to the information being shared? If so, who are they, and why might it be a biased report?
• What scientists, researchers, or government agencies are identified as being the sources of the information you have read?
• Do you think the writers of the web page, blog, or site “cherry-picked” data and facts for this post, resulting in a biased product? Give concrete examples showing how and where this was done.
• Do you think the site you located has any truly incorrect, false, or misleading information? Give examples, and show the data from our reliable sources in contrast to the website/blog information.
• Do you find this website, page, blog, or publication to be a reliable source of information on this topic? Summarize why or why not from your previous responses.
• What tips and techniques would you suggest to someone who wants to search the Web for more information about GMO/GEO foods so they can locate reliable information from trustworthy sources?
Analyzing Public Information on GMOS/GEOS
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Scientific American is a popular science, health and technology magazine mainly focusing on research and while there are free articles users subscribe to gets unlimited access including using institutional subscriptions. Even though, Scientific American does not name specific sponsors in the website homepage the science writers and journalists are expected to disclose when then there are sources of conflict and who funds them.
Even as a subscription magazine, there are sponsors to events especially agricultural, pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors, but also those in the petroleum industry. Groups such as Monsanto, and Syngenta have in the past sponsored events, research and conferences there is a need to ensure there is disclosure of corporate-funded science for the science journalists, which is not always the case. In the custom webpage version . Among the identified sponsors in the biotechnology field are Johnson & Johnson, Celgene, Covance, GlaxoSmithKline Plc (GSK) and the German based firm Merck Group.
The article “The Truth about Genetically Modified Food” focuses on the risks and benefits of genetically modified (GM) crops and technology. Robert Goldberg a UCLA plant molecular biologist allays fears about the GM foods, David Williams, a cellular biologist is concerned that not enough is known how gene editing and genetic engineering likely affects the environments and people given that the genome is not static and can be transformed (Freedman, 2013). Nonetheless, Williams is among a minority of the biologists who question the safety and efficacy of the GM crops.
The writers of the webpage did not cherry-pick the data and facts, but pointed out that there is no consensus on the safety of GM crops. Wil...