Someone sent me a link to some YouTube videos of Jeffrey Smith promoting one of his books. I’m not sure what this person expected to accomplish, but it gives me a great opportunity to discuss the important issues of credibility and bias. I just started reading Lies, Damned Lies, and Science, about these and other issues surrounding science communication, so these sorts of things have been very much on my mind. I’ll be posting more on the book once I finish it. Be careful if you pick it up, there are a few errors about biotechnology in the beginning, but otherwise it’s great so far.
I’m frustrated by Smith’s star status among anti-GMO activists for quite a few reasons, but the main one is: who the heck is he? His official bio is incredibly vague. I found snippets of information in comments on various sites that all seem to source back to an article by Alex Avery. The article, Jeffrey Smith – A Highest Flying Activist’s Hidden Scientific Beliefs?, says that Smith is a poor source for science information because of his belief in yogic flying, a type of transcendental meditation. Unfortunately, I’m wary of taking Avery at face value as well because he presumes to speak on topics he doesn’t have training in, but at least Avery has a Bachelor’s Degree in Biology. Smith apparently has an MBA, but I can’t find where his degree was from or what his undergrad degree was in. I also can’t find what Smith did before mysteriously becoming an anti-GMO guru, other than his being an aide for one James E. Davis, who ran for US Senate in 1996 in Illinois for the Natural Law party, earning 0.3% of the vote. According to some sites, like Smith’s bio at the Penrhos Trust, he ran for US Senate in 1998 in Iowa, but he isn’t listed in the relevant Wikipedia article (or in the Des Moines Register). He might have connections to Maharishi University of Management (is this where he got that MBA?) but doesn’t come up in a search on their site either. According to the Penrhos bio and others, Smith was VP of Marketing for a GMO detection lab, but I can’t find any details about that. In interviews with anti-GMO publications, Smith claims to have worked for various non-profits “do gooder type of things” but provides no details.
Am I just really bad at Googling? Let me know if you can find anything, I’m curious. Regardless of what he has done, it sounds like exactly zero of it prepared him to be a communicator of science. On this blog, I discuss things I know I don’t have expertise in, but I don’t claim to be an expert in them. I also have my credentials, at least my job and school history, posted clearly. What are these people hiding that they can’t do the same? I hope that people will start to be more transparent about these things, because the context of the person making a claim is often very important in interpreting the claim. How does this matter? Here’s what I replied to the email:
I have a scenario for you. Let’s say someone sends you a press release of the CEO of Monsanto making all sorts of claims that GMOs are the best, totally safe, going to save the world, blah blah blah. Do you believe him? Probably not, because you know he’s got a lot to gain from making exaggerations and even from telling complete untruths. You might not realize it, but Jeffery Smith makes a lot of money from his website, books, and speaking engagements. Do you really trust a guy that makes his living on what he says to be 100% truthful? I don’t. Let’s extend this idea to subjects other than GMOs… Would you believe a door to door salesman of Product X to be 100% truthful about the product? Would you believe a chiropractor who told you that there were no other options for back pain besides chiropracty? Would you trust a pro-life activist to give good advice on birth control? How about asking an oil executive about global warming? Of course not, because we know all of these people have something to gain by getting you to believe what they say. It’s not that everything that they say is 100% a lie. If that was the case, you’d see through them in a minute. No, they’ll tell 90% truth, as much as they need to so that they can slip in a few exaggerations or falsehoods and have them sound like truth. Not that anyone is necessarily doing this on purpose, it can be subconscious. We all carry biases on a variety of topics – those proverbial rose colored glasses can color what we say as well as what we see. We just have to be careful to take things with a little bit of caution (or a lot of caution as the case may be) and to get information from multiple sources, including sources we know are biased the other way. The truth usually lies somewhere in the middle. It also helps if the source actually has at least a little bit of professional training or credentials in the subject they purport to be an expert in.
Don’t shoot the messenger. Yes, we all carry biases, therefore should do our own research. I have done mine on GMOs and and come to MY OWN conclusions, ergo
Just say NO! to GMOs.
It takes no professional training to know my own conclusions. I have read many “professional” scientists who agree with me. It takes no professional training to know that I don’t want GMOs on my plate. It takes no professional training to dump wonderful things like Agent Orange (Monsanto made it – other’s dumped it) on to a people. No, professional training is not the be all and end all that we should believe without question. Now Monsanto, among others, is making GMOs and the farmers are dumping it on to the people. GMOs are a blight upon the earth – the research tells me that.
Good for you for doing your own research. Unfortunately, lots of people don’t bother. They read a book by Jeffery Smith and maybe a few blog posts and make a conclusion – instead of considering a variety of sources. What sources have you researched, may I ask? Have you considered their potential biases and how those biases might affect the quality of the information provided?
It doesn’t take professional training to understand even complex subjects like biotechnology. However, when a person claims to be an expert on something, especially when they presume to do things like advise world leaders on a subject (as Smith claims he does), I would hope that the person has at least a basic education in the subject. Does Smith have the perquisite knowledge and experience to critically interpret scientific journal articles? Judging by what I know about him, I say he does not. It’s not that he’s incapable of understanding biotechnology or any other subject, it’s that he has no right claiming to be an expert.
This is not an ad hominem attack. I’m not attacking Smith as a person. I’m simply questioning his self-proclaimed status as “the leading spokesperson on the health dangers of Genetically Modified Organisms” when he has no training in biology (genetics, medicine, human nutrition, biochemistry, microbiology, agriculture, etc) and when he doesn’t exhibit the critical analysis skills one needs to report on something as complex as biotechnology.
Professional training is important because it provides background and scope. This doesn’t mean that every person with an advanced degree is an expert in everything (on the contrary, they are an expert in only a narrow subject) but they are equipped with the ability to better examine things related to their subject area.
It’s taken me years to be able to read a scientific journal article and understand each part. I rely heavily on my college-level education in biochemistry, plant physiology, and genetics (just to name a few). Still, I have to do a lot of research on each paper to be sure I understand the methods they use, what work has been done before, how they came to any conclusions, etc – which means even more papers to carefully examine. I also check the affiliations of the researchers and of the funding agency, searching for any potential bias or conflicts of interest that might have led the researchers to make conclusions that aren’t sound. I also look for other papers that might contradict this paper to see how/why the new conclusions are different. It can take an entire day or longer for some papers, depending on how familiar I am with the research subject. This is a learned skill that takes years of practice, and sometimes I still miss things. I’m no genius, but I’m no slouch either. If it takes me this much effort and time, even with the benefit of advanced education, can we really expect people with no training to do better?
As for the rest of your comment – Monsanto does not equal genetic engineering. It might be a surprise to you, but there are many researchers in the private and public sectors working on and with biotechnology that don’t work for Monsanto. Agent Orange and the tragedy associated with its use has nothing to do with biotechnology either. To argue against use of a technology, you actually have to argue against the technology, not present a straw man.
Well, people are taking vaccine advice from a Playboy model. Apparently the standards aren’t that high for a lot of people….
Anastasia,
Documenting Jeffrey Smith’s provenance in a footnote to your blog would consume more space than warranted in a polite note. Having followed his wretched career for years — forced to, actually, because the loving attention of activists pushes him onto the agenda — I’ll just give you a precis of his background.
Smith runs a dance studio in Fairfield, Iowa. As a sideline, he publishes books through Yes!, a vanity publisher — nobody involved in the mass market will have him, in spite of his claims to be an “international best-selling author”.
He used to be head of marketing for Genetic ID, also of Fairfield, Iowa. The head of Genetic ID, John Fagan, worked overtime to demonize GM crops as the equivalent of nuclear warfare, in a highly successful effort to boost his business — which was testing for GM content.
In one international convention that I organized, Fagan promised to me that he would disclose the procedures his company uses in determining whether a grain sample was engineered or not. When he showed up, he didn’t deliver, and instead, wasted our time with his speculations on how GM crops would destroy etc., and so forth.
Meanwhile, Jeffrey Smith (Fagan’s student) has published a book that’s been de-bunked on all its points by scientists too numerous to mention (how long do you want this post to be?), and if you search the ‘net, you will find a picture of Smith actually demonstrating his flying yogic abilities to members of the Illinois Senate.
With the popularity of Smith, the natural impulse is to think that no person alive would gain any popularity if they are comprehensively dishonest, uninformed, or malignantly warped.
If you’re interested in the statements of those whose claims are easily on a par with those of Jeffrey Smith, read the article at
http://www.gmobelus.com/news.php?viewStory=372
Bottom line: don’t learn plant molecular biology from someone who teaches dancing. Even if he’s a really good dance teacher.
Andy.
Just out of curiosity, I Googled John Fagan, and found that he actually started out a career with distinction, but then mysteriously moved to Maharishi U. Do you know why he gave up his job at NIH? I just think it’s strange.
Anastasia,
I couldn’t begin to guess about Fagan’s move to Maharishi U., and I haven’t heard even the slightest rumor about his motives. I’ve heard many guesses about his motives, though, and none of those guesses were flattering. Given the state of current debate, I wouldn’t count on an accurate biography of Fagan any time soon.
It’s very hard to eliminate issues of credibility and bias from any social commentary.
Paul,
It depends on what social commentary. For instance, it is too widely-known to dispute that “organic” farming originated with Nazi Germany. The general theme of “organic”, via the theme of ‘Blut und Boden’, was expanded to include ‘human weeds’.
That is to say, supposedly invasive, supposedly ‘un-natural’ “species”, such as Jews.
In Germany, farmers and scientists are the new ‘Jews’. Field trials and farmers’ crops are repeatedly destroyed, and the German government’s policy about killing the ‘Jew crops’ is completely paralyzed.
Germany was once the cradle of Western science and philosophy, and has once again sunk into the vicious mire of fascism.
The destroyers of German research, and of German farmers’ fields, may or may not not wear brown shirts, but they’re on the same xenophobic mission.
Andy.
Hi,
I wanted to know how you know Jeffrey Smith make a lot of money from his website, books and speaking engagements.
Raj
Raj – you’re right, I don’t know exactly how much money Smith makes from his anti-GMO activism. I apologize for assuming that "the leading spokesperson on the health dangers of Genetically Modified Organisms" would pull in a lot of money from his activities. You can find the prices of his books, DVDs, brochures, displays online. I was unable to find how much he asks for in speaking fees. I don’t know if Smith’s income from activism is more or less than his income as a dance instructor.
I actually stumbled accros your blog while doing my own googling on Jeffrey Smith. I have a good friend who told me that he believed there was "chemical warfare" in milk you buy at the store. I found, very likely, the same youtube video of this guy and the same questions struck me.
Now that I know this guy is *probably* just some kind of political tool cranking out an agenda, what remains is the question of what makes a "formally" educated person versus the autodidact, especially in the internet age. I have a good friend who is a walking encyclopedia of military history and is fewer than 20 credits into getting any type of degree. I can also recall, very clearly but painfully, a conversation with a registered nurse in an emergency department. I was taking nursing prereqs and had just started working as a nursing assistant, so I asked EVERYBODY questions about EVERYTHING and I read constantly. This nurse draws up Protonix in a syringe and I ask, "What’s that?"
"Oh, it’s Protonix, it’s for reflux."
"How does it work?"
"It puts like a coating in the stomach."
"If it puts a coating in the stomach, why do you give it as an injection rather than a pill or syrup?"
Now irritated : "Oh, I don’t know! It probably doesn’t do anything, I’m just giving it because the doctor told me to!"
Wow. True story. Nurses in emergency rooms not knowing what the drugs that they’re giving to sick people are (Protonix is a proton pump inhibitor, does not coat the stomach and works much better I.V. than P.O.), are walking around following orders like concentration camp guards and getting paid a very decent salary to do this. Possibly worst of all, she really was convinced that the drug that she was going to put into someone’s vein would be of no benefit to the patient.
Anyway, thanks for the great post and thank you to everyone who provided all of this telling information.
93,
–DH
DH, you raise some great points. There are definitely some formally educated people who are pretty much worthless and some people with no formal education who really know their stuff.
With science in particular, being able to be able to glean information from scientific journal articles and to determine whether or not a given article is or is not valid takes a lot of practice. It is surely possible for someone without any formal classes in basic biology, chemistry, genetics, etc to eventually be able to read, understand, and analyze the articles – but I don’t think it’s very likely.
Thanks for blogging about the enigmatic Mr. Smith. I read a tirade of his posted by an adherent on a bulletin board discussion regarding GE crops. Looking into his research was tricky and finding anything regarding his credentials was even trickier. Having examined some of his articles, it seems he has a tendency to cherry-pick evidence or cite dubious sources(including himself) to back his claims.