It is important not to deserve biotech apologists' favorite epithets, such as Luddite, hysterical, emotional, irrational, and not science-based. The media as well as the general public will be listening to both sides and deciding which is more credible. And, taking a leaf from Monsanto's book, activists should enlist support from respected authorities, including those who are not normally identified with politics. Greenpeace and Chefs Collaborative 2000 have provided a good example of this approach, signing up hundreds of chefs and restaurateurs in the struggle for a truly sustainable agriculture. The word of these food professionals carries great weight with the American public.
Scientists can also play an important role.
For example, a new study has found that the main breeding range of the monarch butterfly is almost identical with the central US grain belt. The New York Times reports that Chip Taylor, an ecologist at the University of Kansas and the director of Monarch Watch, is worried about biotech agriculture's effect on the butterflies. Maybe the reason is that the company's zealots believe their own rhetoric. Monsanto always overreaches. Maybe the reason is that the company's zealots believe their own rhetoric.