Public Education on Biotech Needed

February 24, 2000

If farmers are to benefit fully from biotechnology, the public must be educated about the benefits, says North Carolina State University Professor Tom Hoban. In another address to the American Farm Bureau Federation’s World Congress of Young Farmers, Deputy Agriculture Secretary Richard Rominger said the "enormous possibilities" of biotechnology should not be ignored because of the controversy surrounding it.

Increasing "third-party research" has helped calm public concerns about biotechnology, said Hoban. The scientific community’s determinations that biotech food is safe "comfort" the public. Having third-party research from land-grand universities adds to the comfort level, he added.

Hoban believes several challenges remain if the benefits of biotechnology are to be communicated effectively and successfully to the public:

–Sensational media coverage which could raise unwarranted public fears;

–"Relentless" missions and campaigns of activists working against biotechnology;

–Complex ethical and social issues associated with biotechnology.

"Activists have a very successful campaign, and they view agriculture in a very different way," he said. But "no one in the food industry is saying the risks are so great they won’t use biotechnology."

Rominger called biotechnology "another tool in the farmers’ arsenal to help meet the world’s food and fiber needs." Technology has the potential to lessen the strain on natural resources, produce more with less, meet consumer demands and provide needed quantities of food and fiber. That potential "is too great to sweep under the rug," he said.