Our Experience at SXSW!
GMO Answers recently went to SXSW to talk with consumers about their questions and concerns about GMOs and how our food is grown. At the GMO Answers booth we brought the farm indoors, featuring corn, canola and cotton plants on the expo floor, for attendees to experience first-hand and inspire open, transparent conversations about high-tech crops – check it out!
Farmers, nutritionists, as well as independent and company scientists from around the U.S. and Canada volunteered to staff the GMO Answers booth and answer attendee questions about GMOs. Click here to meet the experts who were onsite. Following is some of the feedback they shared about their experience at SXSW (comments submitted via blind survey following SXSW):
"When you get down to it, people are just curious to know what a GMO is and why it's gotten such a bad rap. Millennials like to question the status quo, and that's a good thing. It means they are pushing boundaries farther than ever before. And GMO Answers did a great job of being transparent about what GMOs are, while also generating excitement around the new technology.
According to another expert, “being a part of the GMO Answers booth at SXSW was a great chance to share the facts about the science of GMO's.”
After staffing the GMO Answers booth, one expert shared “SXSW was a great venue to have a discussion about GMOs. The people at SXSW were interested in the technology and were curious and eager to learn more about it.”
And finally, another booth volunteer stated, “I thoroughly enjoyed interacting with the audience at SXSW. Having an open and honest conversation about where food comes from and how it is grown is needed in today's society. We have not always done the best job explaining our technologies and embracing the skepticism of modern agriculture.”
See our video wall for a firsthand look some of the conversations that took place in the GMO Answers booth.
SXSW attendees also stopped by the booth to participate in our live, in-person version of a Reddit Ask me Anything (AMA). Reddit moderator, Victoria Taylor, moderated a panel discussion with Cathleen Enright, Ph.D., Brian Scott, a corn, soybean, popcorn and wheat farmer, Connie Diekman, nutritionist, and Dan Randolph, Lead Biologist, Traits, Genetics, and Technologies at Dow AgroSciences. You can watch the AMA session by clicking on the video below. The conversation is also available on Reddit here.
Visit our SXSW events page for more information. Stay tuned … GMO Answers will post video footage of the SXSW panel “Can Common Food Goals Find Common Ground?” next week!