A Look Across Continents at the Public & Plant Biotech

Oxford University Press has published a new edited volume featuring research on public opinion and media coverage of the plant biotech debate in the US, Europe, Africa, India,and Brazil. The volume is edited by Dominique Brossard and James Shanahan, professors at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Cornell University respectively, along with Clint Nesbitt, a scientist at USDA.

Below is a table of contents. I contributed the chapter on “Where Do Science Debates Come From?,” co-authored with Mike Huge, a graduate student I worked with at Ohio State.

Table of Contents

-Perspectives on communication about agricultural biotechnology.
-Public perceptions of agricultural biotechnology in Britain: the case of genetically modified foods.
-German reactions to genetic engineering in food production.
-Mass media and public perceptions of red and green biotechnology. A case study from Switzerland.
-Genetically Modified Foods: U.S. Public Opinion Research Polls.
-Biotechnology and consumer information.
-What do Brazilians think about transgenics?
-Where do science debates come from? Understanding attention cycles and framing.
-Opinion climates, spirals of silence, and biotechnology; Public opinion as a heuristic for scientific decision-making.
-The hostile media effect and opinions about biotechnology.
-Risk communication, risk beliefs, and democracy: The case of agricultural biotechnology
-The GEO-PIE Project: Case study of web-based outreach at Cornell University, USA.
-Governing controversial technologies: Consensus conferences as a communication tool.
-The Bt corn experience in the Philippines: A multi-stakeholder convergence.
-Food aid crisis and communication about GM foods: Experience from Southern Africa.
-Approval process and adoption of Bollgard Cotton in India :A private company perspective.