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packman

(16,296 posts)
Sun Jun 3, 2018, 10:40 AM Jun 2018

GMO's and Russia - Is/did Russia manipulate the GMO news to their advantage?

Russia, as it turns out, has pushed a lot of anti-GMO propaganda in this decade, the most recent a Russia Today documentary, The Peril on Your Plate. That’s partly because of the competition: Cheap GMO crops from the US could threaten Russia’s agricultural market, and particularly its recent boom in wheat exports.

But these messages serve another purpose, too: to sow distrust in Western innovations, whether agricultural science, fracking, or elections, said Nina Jankowicz, a scholar of Russian disinformation tactics. “The basic idea is to create doubts in people’s minds, whether about Big Agriculture, or chemtrails, or anything else.”


https://www.buzzfeed.com/danvergano/factor-gmo-fake-science-russia?utm_term=.fvr27YpyB#.cpGwOQEe2

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GMO's and Russia - Is/did Russia manipulate the GMO news to their advantage? (Original Post) packman Jun 2018 OP
I don't read or listen to RT but I do know that the American people have strong opinions on it. CentralMass Jun 2018 #1
Surely the anti-GMO crowd isn't weak-minded enough to fall for Russian lies... SidDithers Jun 2018 #2
Or propaganda from domestic sources. CentralMass Jun 2018 #3
Like naturalnews, mercola and Collective Evolution?... SidDithers Jun 2018 #4
Or Monsanto's paid shills (no implication that we have any here). CentralMass Jun 2018 #5

CentralMass

(15,265 posts)
1. I don't read or listen to RT but I do know that the American people have strong opinions on it.
Sun Jun 3, 2018, 11:04 AM
Jun 2018
https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=97567&page=1

"With safety concerns favor mandatory labels on genetically modified foods. And most say they'd use those labels to avoid the food.

Barely more than a third of the public believes that genetically modified foods are safe to eat. Instead 52 percent believe such foods are unsafe, and an additional 13 percent are unsure about them. That's broad doubt on the very basic issue of food safety.

Nearly everyone, moreover — 93 percent — says the federal government should require labels on food saying whether it's been genetically modified, or "bio-engineered" (this poll used both phrases). Such near-unanimity in public opinion is rare.

Fifty-seven percent also say they'd be less likely to buy foods labeled as genetically modified. That puts the food industry in a quandary: By meeting consumer demand for labeling, it would be steering business away from its genetically modified products.

The image problem of genetically modified food is underscored by contrast to organic foods. While only five percent of Americans say they'd be more likely to buy a food labeled as genetically modified, 52 percent say they'd be more likely to buy food that's labeled as having been raised organically.

Genetically modified foods are particularly unpopular among women, another problem for food producers since so many women do the family shopping.

Sixty-two percent of women think genetically modified foods are unsafe to eat, a view that's shared by far fewer men, 40 percent. Indeed a plurality of men think these foods are safe, while women disagree by better than 2-1.

Similarly, while 49 percent of men say they'd be less likely to buy food labeled as genetically modified, that jumps to 65 percent of women. (Similar numbers of women and men say they're more likely to buy organic foods.)"
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