Jan 19, 2024 04:52 PM
(This post was last modified: Jan 19, 2024 05:31 PM by C C.)
Young Spaniards trust science less than older people
https://www.scivillage.com/thread-15286-...l#pid61934
EXCERPT: . . . These results suggest a growing distrust in science among young people, which explains, for example, the lack of scientific vocations in this segment. "Young people don't want to go into careers in science, technology and mathematics, because they believe that science is not a method for the search for truth and even that it is dangerous for the future of human beings," says one of the study's authors, Carlos Elías, a Professor of Journalism in UC3M's Department of Communication.
"It is paradoxical, and very worrying, that the generations with the greatest access to information and education, the best educated in the history of Spain, are the ones that consume the least information and are the most distrustful of science and journalism, two fields that share the search for truth. We must reflect deeply on what is happening," says Alberto Quian, a lecturer of Journalism at USC and co-author of the study.
The results of this work show that age and ideology are the factors that have the greatest effect on the use of different types of information sources. With regard to the consumption of traditional media, the people who consult them most are those at the political centre, while those on the left tend to rely more on official sources (such as health authorities); in contrast to those on the right, who prefer research organisations (such as the CSIC, the Carlos III Institute, etc.) or universities. On the other hand, "anti-vaxxers, however, prefer alternative sources (programmes such as Cuarto Milenio or La Estirpe de los Libres, for example). And this is because the traditional media support vaccines," the researchers point out... (MORE - missing details)
The murky campaign to discredit lab-grown meat
https://www.wired.co.uk/article/cultivat...are-berman
INTRO: A new public information campaign against cultivated—or “lab-grown”—meat is being run by a group with close links to a controversial public relations firm. The group has launched TV adverts and a website purportedly to educate the public about cultivated meat, but its approach—which draws on a PR playbook previously used to discredit the plant-based meat industry—has been criticized by supporters of the cultivated meat industry who claim these campaigns are deceptive and unscientific.
The campaign was launched in 2023 by the Center for the Environment and Welfare (CEW)—a group led by executive director Jack Hubbard, who is also a partner at public relations firm Berman and Company, which has a long history of supporting nonprofits that defend the interests of the food and drink industry. Hubbard told WIRED that Berman and Company helps provide services for CEW, but he would not disclose a list of the campaign group’s funders.
“Everything we’re doing is designed to educate and inform consumers,” Hubbard says of CEW’s work. But Jessica Alamy, senior vice president of policy at the nonprofit Good Food Institute, which works to accelerate adoption of alternatives to animal protein, alleges that CEW is a source of misinformation. “I think it is attempting to stoke fear about a clear, safe choice that’s on a few restaurant menus in the United States and Singapore,” she claims.
One advert that ran on Fox News features some cultivated meat being presented at a fictional school science fair by a child, who says that the cells “grow like a tumor” and are “bath[ed] with chemicals.” CEW has also set up a website that compares the cells used to grow cultivated meat with tumor cells, drawing heavily from an article published by Bloomberg Businessweek in February 2023 that raised fears about immortalized cells. These are a type of cell prized by the cultivated meat industry because they duplicate indefinitely, making it much easier to grow large quantities of meat from small samples of cells.
An unlimited ability to grow is also a hallmark of cancer cells, although it is far from the only aspect that makes a cell cancerous. Scientists interviewed for the Bloomberg Businessweek piece stated that it was “essentially impossible” for people to get cancer from eating even cancerous animal cells. As cultivated meats made from immortalized cells have been assessed by food regulators in the US, Singapore, and Australia, these regulators have concluded that they are safe for humans to consume. (Meanwhile, the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer lists red meat as “probably carcinogenic,” and beef from cows with cancer has found its way into the food system before.)
CEW’s campaign taps into fears that people might have already about novel foods, says Chris Bryant, a research consultant who specializes in cultivated meat... ([url=A new public information campaign against cultivated—or “lab-grown”—meat is being run by a group with close links to a controversial public relations firm. The group has launched TV adverts and a website purportedly to educate the public about cultivated meat, but its approach—which draws on a PR playbook previously used to discredit the plant-based meat industry—has been criticized by supporters of the cultivated meat industry who claim these campaigns are deceptive and unscientific.
The campaign was launched in 2023 by the Center for the Environment and Welfare (CEW)—a group led by executive director Jack Hubbard, who is also a partner at public relations firm Berman and Company, which has a long history of supporting nonprofits that defend the interests of the food and drink industry. Hubbard told WIRED that Berman and Company helps provide services for CEW, but he would not disclose a list of the campaign group’s funders.
“Everything we’re doing is designed to educate and inform consumers,” Hubbard says of CEW’s work. But Jessica Alamy, senior vice president of policy at the nonprofit Good Food Institute, which works to accelerate adoption of alternatives to animal protein, alleges that CEW is a source of misinformation. “I think it is attempting to stoke fear about a clear, safe choice that’s on a few restaurant menus in the United States and Singapore,” she claims.
One advert that ran on Fox News features some cultivated meat being presented at a fictional school science fair by a child, who says that the cells “grow like a tumor” and are “bath[ed] with chemicals.” CEW has also set up a website that compares the cells used to grow cultivated meat with tumor cells, drawing heavily from an article published by Bloomberg Businessweek in February 2023 that raised fears about immortalized cells. These are a type of cell prized by the cultivated meat industry because they duplicate indefinitely, making it much easier to grow large quantities of meat from small samples of cells.
An unlimited ability to grow is also a hallmark of cancer cells, although it is far from the only aspect that makes a cell cancerous. Scientists interviewed for the Bloomberg Businessweek piece stated that it was “essentially impossible” for people to get cancer from eating even cancerous animal cells. As cultivated meats made from immortalized cells have been assessed by food regulators in the US, Singapore, and Australia, these regulators have concluded that they are safe for humans to consume. (Meanwhile, the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer lists red meat as “probably carcinogenic,” and beef from cows with cancer has found its way into the food system before.)
CEW’s campaign taps into fears that people might have already about novel foods, says Chris Bryant, a research consultant who specializes in cultivated meat... (MORE - details)
https://www.scivillage.com/thread-15286-...l#pid61934
EXCERPT: . . . These results suggest a growing distrust in science among young people, which explains, for example, the lack of scientific vocations in this segment. "Young people don't want to go into careers in science, technology and mathematics, because they believe that science is not a method for the search for truth and even that it is dangerous for the future of human beings," says one of the study's authors, Carlos Elías, a Professor of Journalism in UC3M's Department of Communication.
"It is paradoxical, and very worrying, that the generations with the greatest access to information and education, the best educated in the history of Spain, are the ones that consume the least information and are the most distrustful of science and journalism, two fields that share the search for truth. We must reflect deeply on what is happening," says Alberto Quian, a lecturer of Journalism at USC and co-author of the study.
The results of this work show that age and ideology are the factors that have the greatest effect on the use of different types of information sources. With regard to the consumption of traditional media, the people who consult them most are those at the political centre, while those on the left tend to rely more on official sources (such as health authorities); in contrast to those on the right, who prefer research organisations (such as the CSIC, the Carlos III Institute, etc.) or universities. On the other hand, "anti-vaxxers, however, prefer alternative sources (programmes such as Cuarto Milenio or La Estirpe de los Libres, for example). And this is because the traditional media support vaccines," the researchers point out... (MORE - missing details)
The murky campaign to discredit lab-grown meat
https://www.wired.co.uk/article/cultivat...are-berman
INTRO: A new public information campaign against cultivated—or “lab-grown”—meat is being run by a group with close links to a controversial public relations firm. The group has launched TV adverts and a website purportedly to educate the public about cultivated meat, but its approach—which draws on a PR playbook previously used to discredit the plant-based meat industry—has been criticized by supporters of the cultivated meat industry who claim these campaigns are deceptive and unscientific.
The campaign was launched in 2023 by the Center for the Environment and Welfare (CEW)—a group led by executive director Jack Hubbard, who is also a partner at public relations firm Berman and Company, which has a long history of supporting nonprofits that defend the interests of the food and drink industry. Hubbard told WIRED that Berman and Company helps provide services for CEW, but he would not disclose a list of the campaign group’s funders.
“Everything we’re doing is designed to educate and inform consumers,” Hubbard says of CEW’s work. But Jessica Alamy, senior vice president of policy at the nonprofit Good Food Institute, which works to accelerate adoption of alternatives to animal protein, alleges that CEW is a source of misinformation. “I think it is attempting to stoke fear about a clear, safe choice that’s on a few restaurant menus in the United States and Singapore,” she claims.
One advert that ran on Fox News features some cultivated meat being presented at a fictional school science fair by a child, who says that the cells “grow like a tumor” and are “bath[ed] with chemicals.” CEW has also set up a website that compares the cells used to grow cultivated meat with tumor cells, drawing heavily from an article published by Bloomberg Businessweek in February 2023 that raised fears about immortalized cells. These are a type of cell prized by the cultivated meat industry because they duplicate indefinitely, making it much easier to grow large quantities of meat from small samples of cells.
An unlimited ability to grow is also a hallmark of cancer cells, although it is far from the only aspect that makes a cell cancerous. Scientists interviewed for the Bloomberg Businessweek piece stated that it was “essentially impossible” for people to get cancer from eating even cancerous animal cells. As cultivated meats made from immortalized cells have been assessed by food regulators in the US, Singapore, and Australia, these regulators have concluded that they are safe for humans to consume. (Meanwhile, the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer lists red meat as “probably carcinogenic,” and beef from cows with cancer has found its way into the food system before.)
CEW’s campaign taps into fears that people might have already about novel foods, says Chris Bryant, a research consultant who specializes in cultivated meat... ([url=A new public information campaign against cultivated—or “lab-grown”—meat is being run by a group with close links to a controversial public relations firm. The group has launched TV adverts and a website purportedly to educate the public about cultivated meat, but its approach—which draws on a PR playbook previously used to discredit the plant-based meat industry—has been criticized by supporters of the cultivated meat industry who claim these campaigns are deceptive and unscientific.
The campaign was launched in 2023 by the Center for the Environment and Welfare (CEW)—a group led by executive director Jack Hubbard, who is also a partner at public relations firm Berman and Company, which has a long history of supporting nonprofits that defend the interests of the food and drink industry. Hubbard told WIRED that Berman and Company helps provide services for CEW, but he would not disclose a list of the campaign group’s funders.
“Everything we’re doing is designed to educate and inform consumers,” Hubbard says of CEW’s work. But Jessica Alamy, senior vice president of policy at the nonprofit Good Food Institute, which works to accelerate adoption of alternatives to animal protein, alleges that CEW is a source of misinformation. “I think it is attempting to stoke fear about a clear, safe choice that’s on a few restaurant menus in the United States and Singapore,” she claims.
One advert that ran on Fox News features some cultivated meat being presented at a fictional school science fair by a child, who says that the cells “grow like a tumor” and are “bath[ed] with chemicals.” CEW has also set up a website that compares the cells used to grow cultivated meat with tumor cells, drawing heavily from an article published by Bloomberg Businessweek in February 2023 that raised fears about immortalized cells. These are a type of cell prized by the cultivated meat industry because they duplicate indefinitely, making it much easier to grow large quantities of meat from small samples of cells.
An unlimited ability to grow is also a hallmark of cancer cells, although it is far from the only aspect that makes a cell cancerous. Scientists interviewed for the Bloomberg Businessweek piece stated that it was “essentially impossible” for people to get cancer from eating even cancerous animal cells. As cultivated meats made from immortalized cells have been assessed by food regulators in the US, Singapore, and Australia, these regulators have concluded that they are safe for humans to consume. (Meanwhile, the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer lists red meat as “probably carcinogenic,” and beef from cows with cancer has found its way into the food system before.)
CEW’s campaign taps into fears that people might have already about novel foods, says Chris Bryant, a research consultant who specializes in cultivated meat... (MORE - details)