Let’s face it; the battle on GMOs isn’t taking a vacation any time soon. Where there is change, there will be questions. However, it’s when change comes without it’s life partner “education” that a controversy is born.
Meet Change. Change is the fact that the population will never stop growing and increasing, but the availability of land to produce food on will.
Meet Education. Education is letting the world know how we’ll feed a rapidly growing population, and why the tools and science we use aren’t going to kill us in the process.
So what happened when Change and Education fell in love? Well, they got married and had a baby. That baby has now grown up to be one of the most controversial leaders in the history of science; their baby is GMO.
GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms) means that a change has been made to the DNA of an organism. For anyone who’s ever experienced negative backlash about GMOs, you know that the main driver behind their disagreement can be categorized as two things; confusion and fear. It’s the “unknowing” that freaks people out, but put yourselves in their shoes for a hot second. Think back to when you learned how to swim. The swim teacher is urging you to jump in water that’s 8 ft. deep without any type of support. Uh, number one I don’t know what’s in that water and number 2, I could potentially drown. And there you have it. Before learning to swim, you had to overcome the fear and confusion of unknown waters. Once you got over those feelings you were willing to jump in and listen to someone who taught you how to doggy paddle your way back to the ladder, so you could jump right back in!
When we’re faced with the challenge of an “non-believer,” we need to step back and try to relate to how they’re feeling. By doing this, we’re able to gain a better understanding of how to talk to somebody and how to defend what we believe in. By automatically pointing fingers and telling someone that they’re wrong isn’t going to help, but educating them might. By taking the time to have a conversation with somebody, listen to what they have to say and then come back with facts that are true to defend your point, you gain respect… and maybe even a new #TeamGMO member.
So, how do we build up our credibility to effectively defend GMOs? Well first off, I ain’t a scientist, and by no means can I tell you exactly what to say. But what I CAN do is give you a resource that will make you unstoppable. I was fortunate enough to hear a representative of GMO Answers speak at a dairy industry function, and they were absolutely INCREDIBLE. Not only were they smart, they were patient, kind and able to answer any question thrown at them with a quick wit, sometimes with a dash of sass and a sprinkle of humor. The company’s website gmoanswers.com has anything and everything you’d need to fight the battles in defense of GMOs.
Always remember; if you eat food, this issue concerns you. Not only are GMOs going to help preserve the quality of meals we are fortunate to have, it’s going to help save lives in places that are less fortunate. In fact…. they’ve already started to do that!
The Cow Chronicler 