Dot Earth Blog: A Song Tries to Go Beyond the 'OMG' Reaction to GMOs

[2:26 p.m. | Update | I'll be adding various interesting "reviews" at the bottom of the post, starting with Stewart Brand, the author of "Whole Earth Discipline."]

David Holmes, a graduate of Prof. Jay Rosen?s Studio 20?digital journalism program at New York University?and co-creator of the popular ?Fracking Song,? is now making a career out of deconstructing tough, consequential issues through a mashup of music, graphics and hyper-linking. (Some people have taken to calling such output ?newsicals.?)

Holmes and fellow graduate and song creator Andrew Bean have formed a company, Explainer Music, and their latest tune, produced for the Web site PandoDaily, is ?OMG GMO?s!? The hip-hop video digs in on a familiar theme here ? resolving the mix of technologies and traditions that can feed humanity with the fewest regrets:

I encourage you to read the hyper-linked lyrics to see the informational backdrop behind they lyrics. Here?s an excerpt:

Is it bad for us? It depends on the crop
Sometimes it?s more nutritious,?sometimes it?s not
And while the pesticides don?t sound very sweet
The EPA assures us that they?re safe to eat

But people should know how their food is grown

Yet Americans don?t label GMOs
There are many different kinds of GM foods
Just saying ?Made with GMOs? might not do

Now it might be too simple to say ?Just ban it?
When there?s potential to help feed the planet
Weigh each crop?s impact on earth and health
And don?t use patents to screw the ones you?re out to help

The full lyrics are here. I?d say this is a constructive and creative step in resolving what many see as?n?a hybrid path to a secure food future.

I was in touch with Holmes this morning after he alerted me to the new song and I asked for a bit of background. Here?s his note:

Each year, NYU?s Studio 20 partners with a media organization on solving a problem in journalism. Explainer.net was part of our Building a Better Explainer project with ProPublica which unofficially ended in May 2011 when we presented our findings to them at the end of the semester. But I continued to work on explainer songs about redistricting, Super PACs, and foreclosures for ProPublica, and about the Euro Crisis for the Guardian.

In January, I started the company?Explainer Music?with Andrew Bean (who co-wrote the music for all of our songs including the Fracking Song) and two graduates of the N.Y.U. Film & Documentary concentration, Sharon Shattuck and Krishnan Vasudevan (they?ve been working with us since the Super PAC song). Then last month, we entered into a partnership with PandoDaily to produce short, biweekly explainer songs on technology/science. (this is our third song. The first two can be found?here?and?here).

A recent post on N.Y.U?s Studio 20 blog includes Holmes? recommendation to other young commuicators to think entrepreneurially:

?I don?t mean, ?starting your own business,?? he says. ?I mean charting your own path, with or without the help of an established journalistic institution, and, most importantly, not waiting for someone else?s permission to do something innovative.?

Needless to say, I?m a big fan, and Holmes will be a featured visitor in my ?Blogging a Better Planet? class at Pace University this fall.

2:26 p.m. | Addendum | I?m adding various reasoned reviews below:

Stewart Brand, the author of ?Whole Earth Discipline: An Ecopragmatist Manifesto?:

My reaction: groan?. Maybe because I was just on the phone with Hero-For-The-Planet ur-botanist Peter Raven. He is horrified by the continuing anti-scientific uproar and panic about GMOs.

Saying as the song does, ?Well, it?s a real debate,? is the same formulation as saying it?s okay to have creationism paired with evolution in schools if you ?teach the controversy.?

In an e-mail exchange, I responded to Brand this way:

Personally, I?m not groaning because I see this as akin to step 2 or so in a 12-step program toward rational discourse. There won?t be a single jump to a big societal group ?OK?..

This need for stepwise process is one reason I?m not averse to labeling. In some ways I think it could awaken the public to the normalcy and ubiquity of technologically developed food.

Source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=90a74188b93e488c8d98eea1c997afbf

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