Understanding Science Key in Age of Social Media

By Bruce Cochrane

A chemistry professor with McGill University says, with the proliferation of social media, an understanding of science is more important today than ever before when looking at food production.

"Pigging Out on Science" will be among the keynote presentations Wednesday afternoon as part of Manitoba Pork's 2015 Annual General Meeting.

Dr. Joe Schwarcz, a professor of chemistry and director of the Office for Science and Society with McGill University, says science plays a role in everything in life and suggests a basis understanding of chemistry and science is more important than ever.

Dr. Joe Schwarcz-McGill University:
These days there's so much written by bloggers on the internet that really is pseudo science.

They attack genetically modified foods, they attack the meat industry often with no scientific basis so what I try to do is separate the sense from the nonsense.

In this particular case I will talk about agriculture, I will talk about pesticides and the risk benefit ratios and some of the issues that actually arise.

I will also address some of the issues that arise in the pork industry.
Combating smells, of course, is one that is a constant concern, and also some of the interesting aspects about feed and whether or not people should be worried if genetically modified components are fed to animals.
Essentially it's going to be a discussion on separating myths from facts.

Dr. Schwarcz says unfortunately there isn't a whole lot of knowledge among the public and whatever knowledge they do have is not necessarily scientific.

He says these days so many people get their information from the University of Google and not everything in Google is scientifically sound.

Source: Farmscape