Academics can be a nasty bunch. They are quick to criticize the research of fellow scientists if they disagree with methods or conclusions.
This aggressive behaviour is a normal part of scientific debate and discovery. But when the topic is controversial, non-scientists like to jump into the arena and start pummeling.
Such is the case of Shelley McGuire, a biological sciences professor and lactation expert at Washington State University.
In July, WSU issued a news release on McGuire’s research into glyphosate and breast milk. McGuire collected milk and urine samples from 41 lactating women living in and around Pullman, Wash. The area has productive farmland, and many of the women were likely exposed to the herbicide, including 10 who lived on or next to a farm. Five had actually mixed or applied glyphosate.
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The results showed that glyphosate levels were non-existent or extremely low in the women’s urine and there was no glyphosate in the breast milk samples.
The results are intriguing, but McGuire is no longer talking about the study. Pro-organic and anti-GMO groups have sent her an inordinate amount of hate mail. She is holding off on media interviews until the study is published, likely later this year.
McGuire’s case demonstrates how some activists destroy the credibility of a scientist when they don’t agree with a result.
The behaviour is disheartening, but a group of female science writers are fighting back.
On Sept. 17, the women are holding an event in Washington, D.C., called Women Fighting the Culture of Alarmism: come meet the science defenders.
The writers want to debunk myths around food and “reassure moms that the world is not as scary as the alarmists would have (us) believe.”
In other words, the female writers are sounding their own alarm: science cannot be silenced.
It’s a message desperately needed in the age of un-reason.
robert.arnason@producer.com
