TED GMO Controversy

We’ve reposted a number of very profound TED talks here at Ecomedia Studies over the past couple of years, including USC research Johanna Blakely’s thought-provoking discussion on the impact of Food, Inc. on viewers.

However, several of my friends and colleagues have recently begun sharing a powerful condemnation of TED by Mike Adams and the team at the non-profit website NaturalNews.com. The story, “TED Aligns with Monsanto,” claims:

“Allow me to be the first to announce that TED is dead. Why? Because the group that organizes so-called “TED talks” has been thoroughly hijacked by corporate junk science and now openly rejects any talks about GMOs, food as medicine, or even the subject of how food can help prevent behavioral disorders in children. All these areas of discussion are now red-flagged from being presented on any TED stage.

“This is openly admitted by TEDx itself in a little-known letter publicly published on December 7, 2012. Click here to view the letter.”

While the letter appears to address the issue of faulty science more generally, some environmentalists like Adams call particular attention to the   section of the letter on GMO foods.  That section of the letter focuses primarily on what agree is a false causal link between vaccines and autism and the promise made by some TED speakers that foods can be used to treat autism. However, the language about GMOs in particular is very vague and open to interpretation. The section does list anti-GMO foodists as bad science but does not elaborate. Is Adams reading too much into the issue or has TED somehow fallen sway to powerful corporate interests?

Given TED’s highly visible role in the media and among students and scholars these day’s we’ll be watching this development closely.

Comments and suggestions for further reading are highly encouraged.