It is interesting to explore the pictures or graphics that accompany blogs, web pages and articles supporting the campaign for labeling of foods containing GMOs. A great many of these images are seriously misleading. This is ironic for a campaign that is spearheaded by a group called the "Truth In Labeling Coalition"
The most frequent theme in these graphics is that of a large hypodermic needle injecting a piece of fruit, a tomato, or some other produce item. In an article about GMOs in "natural" cereals, TG daily features an image with no less than 11 needles in five tomatoes. Treehugger uses the same photo which is from Getty Images. Organic life style magazine.com also has a drawing of a tomato being injected. Eat Local Guide.com has the image of someone in a lab coat injecting an apple. Grist features an "infographic" with a cluster of grapes being injected. Fastcompany.com uses the same image.
Why The Images Are Misleading
While clearly these images are effectively emotive, they are misleading in at least three ways. First, The process of genetic engineering of plants does not involve a hypodermic needle in any way. Second, the the process occurs at a single cell level, not with some massive amount of material being injected into a ready-to-eat food item. (A site called Ask Roger Drummer.com that sells herbal remedies sets the record here with an image of a huge hypodermic of purple liquid being injected into an orange). Finally, the foods most often pictured are not currently GMO crops, and most are unlikely ever to be genetically engineered for commercial production.
Non-GMO Crops Usually Pictured
The picturing of non-GMO crop examples is widespread. Even the website for the Truth in Labeling Coalition itself has a side banner of food images which pictures several non-GMO crops. The image on NatualNews.com has a DNA gel in the background which is more relevant, but also pictures tomatoes. There has not been a GMO tomato on the market for more than a decade. The foods pictured on a site called Organic Its Worth It.org pictures the non-GMO crops, radishes and lettuce. Some sites actually picture crops that are actually genetically engineered on a commercial scale, but this is not that common.
Other Misleading Themes
The hypodermic is not the only example of a misleading graphic. An "info-graphic" on Treehugger is typical of another common theme straight out of the old "what do you get if you cross a ... and a ..." jokes of childhood. It pictures strawberry + fish = a sort of half strawberry fish. That goes back to a long since abandoned effort to make a frost tolerant strawberry using an anti-freezing protein from a fish. It was never commercial and in fact animal genes are not used in any current GMO crops. Even if they were, they would not result in some strange chimera. In an article titled, "Just Label It", Alibi.com actually leads with a picture of an actual GMO crop (field corn), but then follows with a depiction of some strange orange squash with eyes and fangs. The Groundswell Project.org has an image of ears of corn, but one is a grenade. A site interestingly called disinfo.com goes with the classic Frankenstein picture. Pccfarmlandtrust.org goes with an image of a mock "Hungry Man Frozen Dinner" combining the Frankenstein combined with no less than three chimeras (a potato with eyes, a tomato with a fish tail and a broccoli/snail hybrid). A link titled "Picture related to GMO" on nowpublic.com features a bowl of strawberries, one of which is bright blue.
How Does Disinformation Fit With A Campaign About "Truth?"
The genre of emotive and largely misleading images to depict biotechnology is certainly not new, but it is problematic that it is being so widely used by those that support manditory labeling. The labeling campaign is being positioned as a common sense argument about the need to give of consumers accurate information from which to make rational decisions. If that is the goal, why do so many promoters of the idea employ misleading and emotional imagery?
GMO labeling may well need to be discussed, even 15 years into large scale use. But such a discussion will only be helpful for consumers if it could be based on accurate information - and graphics.
p.s. It is interesting that although these images are easily found by searching Google Images or Flickr, virtually none are available for free commercial use through something like Creative Commons. Most of sites that use them make no reference to source with the one exception of Getty Images listed above.
p.s. It is interesting that although these images are easily found by searching Google Images or Flickr, virtually none are available for free commercial use through something like Creative Commons. Most of sites that use them make no reference to source with the one exception of Getty Images listed above.
You are invited to comment here or to email me at savage.sd@gmail.com. My website is Applied Mythology.
