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Oregon State University (USA) has created a new Outreach Program in Resource
Biotechnology to work with policy makers, the science community, educators,
students and the general public in understanding the use of biotechnology in
agriculture and natural resources, February 2005 by Dawn Marie Woodward.

The program will build upon some similar educational initiatives operated
by OSU several years ago, and respond to the continued and persistent public
debate about biotechnology issues and genetic engineering, said Steve
Strauss, a professor of genetics and forest science, and program director.

?Most of our crops already are genetically engineered via conventional
means,? Strauss said. ?But the use of recombinant DNA methods, also called
gene splicing, raises many new conundrums with its new opportunities.

?It?s important to listen to all viewpoints and help to identify the
factually and contextually accurate information,? he said. ?There are many
strong ideological views, new and complex gene science to understand,
rapidly evolving agricultural and food production practices, and vested
interests in outcomes. This makes it essential to have referees that the
public and decision makers can rely upon.?

The new program will focus on the scientific dimensions of benefit, risk and
ethics of biotechnology, Strauss said, and will also closely track the many
important issues that go beyond the realm of science, including legal,
financial, cultural, psychological, and religious perspectives. It will
develop a network of scientific contacts to help inform the public and
decision makers.

Funding for the program will be provided by the College of Agricultural
Sciences and the College of Forestry at OSU, and may later include
charitable grants, federal research support, or educational grants available
through the National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Education or
others.

The program responds in part to needs identified in a new, independent
report on existing outreach programs on these topics, said Kirstin Carroll,
who will serve as the full-time coordinator. ?This study indicated that
there are no programs like this established in the Pacific Northwest, and
only two similar ones in the entire nation, at Cornell University and the
University of California,? Carroll said. ?There?s a real deficit of active
outreach in biotechnology by academic organizations, especially in the area
of crop genetic engineering, which is highly complex and controversial.

?Several core guidelines have been defined for the program. They include:

Respect and common ground: The program will mediate discussion and identify
common ground between widely differing views about biotechnology. Although
scientists say that the safety of genetically modified organisms resides
with the end product rather than the process of creating them, the process
itself clearly creates alarm and social concerns for many. These differing
views must be explored.

Context: Discussions about biotechnology should include the historical
context. Genetic modification has been done for millennia, and included the
use of new species, wide hybridization, inbreeding, cloning and chemical or
radiation mutagenesis. Some aspects of biotechnology are new and have risks
or benefits that are difficult to estimate. Other products are familiar in
their properties and may be safer than the products they replace, for
example by reducing pesticide use or damage to soil.

Holism: Considering a full range of alternatives may help achieve
environmental and humanistic goals in a growing and resource limited world.
Difficult choices and possible tradeoffs among goals must be identified, and
over-simplifications and distortions of science and technology avoided.

Humanitarian issues: The widely differing levels of wealth, food security,
and environmental health among people around the world can lead to very
different perspectives about the kinds of technological benefits and risks
they are willing to assume. In their social debate, developed nations should
consider how strict regulations that are imposed on trade, agricultural
subsidies, biodiversity, and food safety can have powerful effects on the
poor.

?There?s a lot we can do to improve the level of understanding about
biotechnology,? Strauss said. ?According to recent surveys the majority of
Americans don?t even know that tomatoes have genes, let alone any of the
details of gene technology. A lack of understanding of the science in this
area leaves the public prone to confusion and alarm.?

Public outreach will be a key goal of the program, possibly including museum
exhibits, radio or television programming, community or after-school
programs or materials, and web-based information. Collaboration may also be
sought with existing K-12 outreach programs that OSU operates or is involved
with, such as Science Education Partnerships, the Rural Science Education
Program, Discovery Days, Saturday Academy, SMILE, and Science Connections
with the Portland public schools.

Workshops and professional continuing education programs can be created for
business leaders, natural resource professionals, Extension agents and
others. Presentations will be made to national and international panels, and
publications prepared for national audiences.

An advisory board is being set up to guide the actions of the new program,
with experts from agriculture, biotechnology of animals, ethics in natural
resource biotechnology, policy development, business, economics, science
education, and agricultural Extension.

Educators say the new program should also aid more than a dozen
undergraduate and graduate degree programs at OSU, in which students should
be informed on a broad range of biotechnology issues.

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