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Genetically Modified Foods: Why the Public Frenzy? Role of Mainstream News Media

When someone brings up the term “genetic modification,” it brings a negative feeling in most of us. It brings some sort of nasty connotation with it. Even though most of the Americans have no clue about the technology, they are generally distrustful of the biotechnology that has fostered ‘genetically modified foods.’ Why does the public distrust this new technology? Is it because the public does not trust the industry? Is it because the public does not have confidence in the governmental regulatory agencies entrusted with the task of protecting the public? Or is it due to sensationalized and often conflicting coverage of the potential, but unproven risks of the emerging technology in the mainstream news media? The controversy about the genetically modified (GM) foods was generated by a brief report published in 1999 in Nature stating that a popular variety of transgenic corn produces pollen that was toxic to Monarch butterfly larvae. The article noted that the Monarch larvae “grew more slowly and suffered higher mortality than larvae exposed to pollen from conventional corn.” The report was immediately given prominent play in mainstream media, and became a rallying point for opponents of biotechnology. However, six follow-up studies published in October 2001 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggested that varieties of Bt corn most commonly planted in the United States were not a threat to the Monarch butterflies and that the only variety that appeared to pose a threat was not popular with the farmers. That strain was later taken off the market. These findings never made the front pages of mainstream media. Why were the stories about subsequent research showing that the “Monarch butterflies were not threatened after all” not on