Scholarly outliers

A plucky group of scientific outsiders, presenting results outside of the mainstream consensus, hosts its own conference with presentations mostly from those in their heterodox club. They present themselves as providing the truth that is much opposed by big moneyed interests. They're celebrated in a reception hosted in Parliament by one of the political parties. The media is expected to highlight their alternative take on reality, with perhaps some offsetting commentary from those in the mainstream; the overall effect, though, is to stoke and legitimise popular misunderstandings.

Without any further detail, what are your priors? Is this something to welcome?

Now let's make it multichoice. Do you update if it's any of these?

1. A holistic medicine conference talking up the merits of homeopathy, hosted by the Greens?
2. An anti-vaccination conference with Wakefield-group presenters, hosted possibly by the Greens or Maori Party?
3. A Lord Monckton shin-dig with his preferred researchers on global warming, hosted then either by ACT or maybe National?
4. An anti-GMO conference on the evils of Big Corporate Agriculture, hosted by the Greens?
5. A conference on how mainstream economics is all wrong, highlighting heterodox insights about how people do not respond to incentives, hosted by the Greens and Mana?

This weekend brings GMO-sceptics to Wellington. Presentations include "Pesticides: scilencing the ecosystem and silencing our children" and "Overweight, undernourished, sterile and dying of cancer. Our food is it sealing the fate of humanity?"

And the Greens are hosting them in Parliament:

A few further notes:

• The keynote speaker, Gilles-Eric Seralini, found tumours in mice fed GM crops. But his paper was retracted due to concerns like these. It was later elsewhere republished in a friendlier outlet.
• Vandana Shiva, also there speaking, earned this profile in the New Yorker, which concluded:

  When Shiva writes that “Golden Rice will make the malnutrition crisis worse” and that it will kill people, she reinforces the worst fears of her largely Western audience. Much of what she says resonates with the many people who feel that profit-seeking corporations hold too much power over the food they eat. Theirs is an argument well worth making. But her statements are rarely supported by data, and her positions often seem more like those of an end-of-days mystic than like those of a scientist.

• On 29 January this year, the American Association for the Advancement of Science released a rather timely survey on scientific support for use of genetic modification techniques in food. Huffington has the summary: 

  In sharp contrast to public views about GMOs, 89% of scientists believe genetically modified foods are safe.
  
  That's the most eye-opening finding in a Pew Research Center study on science literacy, undertaken in cooperation with the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and released on January 29.
  
  The overwhelming scientific consensus exceeds the percentage of scientists, 88%, who think humans are mostly responsible for climate change. However, the public appears far more suspicious of scientific claims about GMO safety than they do about the consensus on global warming.
  
  Some 57% of Americans say GM foods are unsafe and a startling 67% do not trust scientists, believing they don't understand the science behind GMOs. AAAS researchers blame poor reporting by mainstream scientists for the trust and literacy gaps.
  
  The survey also contrasts sharply with a statement published earlier this week in a pay-for-play European journal by a group of anti-GMO scientists and activists, including Michael Hansen of the Center for Food Safety, and philosopher Vandana Shiva, claiming, "no scientific consensus on GMO safety."

The scientific consensus on GMOs is as strong as the scientific consensus on climate change. Will Browning have to retract this like he had to pull back from endorsing homeopathy for Ebola?

The Greens could play at highlighting the heterodox views on GMOs a couple years ago. But when 89% of scientists say GMO food is safe?