The
Co-Directors of the Plant Agricultural Biotechnology Graduate Admissions
Pathway (Drs. Diane Beckles and John Harada) and the Interim Director
of the World Food Center and Head of the Seed Biotechnology Center, Dr. Kent
Bradford, invited members of the UC Davis community to participate in a panel
discussion centered on how the public perceives modern agriculture, with
emphasis on genetically modified crops and food.
A focal point of the discussion was to
determine how we as scientists can better communicate with and educate the
public on these issues to obtain a social license to use modern agricultural
technologies.
The panelist for this event included: Dr.
Channapatna Prakash, Professor, Tuskegee University; Dr. Gurdev Khush,
Professor Emeritus, UC Davis; Mr. Raoul Adamchak, Farm Manager, UC Davis Farms;
Dr. Charlotte Biltekoff, Professor of American Studies and Food Science and
Technology, UC Davis; and Dr. Peggy Lemeaux, Cooperative Extension Specialist
in Crop Biotechnology UC Berkeley).
Student Representative
from ScienceSays (Destiny Davis, Isaiah Mohr and Deborah
Fetter) and Tuesday Simmonds from UC CLEAR
(Communication, Literacy, Education for Agricultural Research)
were also part of the panel. Special thanks to Shannon Albers, former Program, Educational and Outreach Coordinator of IFAL
(Institute for Food & Agricultural Literacy) for help in organizing
the program.
