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Beyond the day-to-day treatment of age-old maladies, today’s physician is plagued with the task of interpreting and debunk-ing issues spawned from the ubiquitous clinic of Dr. Google.
This rift between scientific reality and web-based misinformation maligns consumer confidence about the safety of GMO food. The reality is that we live in a time of unprecedented food safety, abundance and choice. Yet physicians commonly encounter patients convinced they are being systematically poisoned by the food that actually sustains them.
Polling shows that when it comes to health-related questions, people turn to and trust their doctors. A longitudinal study published in NEJM found that trust in physicians has increased with the ascent of the Internet, while trust in Internet information in general has declined. People investigate health questions on the Internet first and then take that info to their physicians for further discussion. The safety of GMO ingredients should be as important to physicians as discussing the safety of vaccines.
It is an opportunity to affect trust that benefits patients individually, but also affects communities broadly, as science communicated through the physician conduit is amplified through subsequent conversations. These technologies have provided dividends of safety, afford-ability and food security to consumers. It is imperative that physicians identify trusted sources for information on GMO crops and actively engage conversations with a concerned public looking for answers about its food.
Read full, original post: Physicians are Critical Conduits for GMO Information
