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Biotech Gallery Gene-Ius Resources Brow Se Select Language ​ ▼ 6/14/2014 Madagascar student prank shows March Against Monsanto has heartless agenda | Genetic Literacy Project Subscribe to Our Daily or Weekly Newsletter Follow Like 2.3k Follow 1,759 follow ers 197 Enter Your Email Address → Search About Human Agriculture Biotech Gallery Gene-ius Resources Brow se Select Language ​ ▼ Biotech Gallery March Against Monsanto Madagascar student prank shows March Against Monsanto has heartless agenda Dustin Eirdosh | June 10, 2014 | Genetic Literacy Project Like 513 Tw eet 89 Share 5 15 426 On May 30, the global group March Against Monsanto (see GLP Facts) held its third coordinated protest in hundreds of Name March Against Monsanto Founded 2013 cities around the world. Hundreds of thousands of people Type Advocacy Organization reportedly participated. But what does this group really Founder(s) Tami Canal Website http://w w w .march- stand for beyond their obvious disdain for one company, against-monsanto.com/ Monsanto, and biotechnology? One student in Madagascar VIEW GLP FACTS embarked on a mission to find out by setting up a fake “Madagascar Against Monsanto” group and posting outrageous pictures and statements, to see if activists would VIEW BIOTECH GALLERY ARCHIVE embrace or reject his bizarre extremism. What happened? *********** Related Articles: Madagascar student prank show s “Sir, I am afraid for my future, afraid because March Against Monsanto has threatened me and my community,” March Against Monsanto has heartless agenda Navid Rakotofala told me amidst a fury of reactions to his unconventional expose prank to explore just how outrageously far “mainstream” anti-GMO activists would go to to spread their message. University student scientist view of Navid is my protege at the University of Toliara in the southwest of Madagascar. He doesn’t attend the crop biotech safety critics: Where’s the beef? university but he has assisted me as a volunteer to translate my courses for over a year now. In exchange, I’ve helped him improve his English by teaching him about the growing field of psychology of science (POS); that is, how our brains create and relate to this thing we call science. There’s no better way to teach POS than to Golden Rice, set for debut, w ill be great source of Vitamin A, study contrast unhealthy and healthy scientific discourse. In my personal opinion, there are few examples of unhealthy show s science discourse more clear than the extreme vocalists of the anti-biotechnology movement. Well, Navid took my message to heart, and despite my concerns, he created quite the prank to coincide with Maine’s fractious relationship w ith the May 30 March Against Monsanto to challenge the way the group’s supporters engage this issue. They often Monsanto seem more interested in promoting their views regardless of whether the science is behind them or whether people will actually be helped by what they are advocating. He set up an intriguing hoax to evaluate their sincerity. The fall out from this teen’s hijinx are extremely telling, and should serve as a clarion call to those open Open-source GM: Separating Monsanto from modification to reconsidering their scientific and ethical positions on genetic engineering. Navid’s project speaks for itself, let me just share some highlights from how this extremist group responded. Madagascar is not much involved in this debate. We don’t have any approved genetically modified crops but Ten lessons from Monsanto’s sw ift- boating of Prop 37 our impoverished country might benefit greatly if Golden Rice or other enhanced GMO products were approved. For the most part, we are observers to what seems like a loud and often silly debate about GM safety. In the days before the global event, Navid set up a fake blogspot, a fictitious Madagascar branch of the Voices come out in defense of March Against Monsanto. Monsanto Navid begins his prank “Monsanto Protection Act” extended by U.S. House vote Cure for HIV? New gene-editing technique show s promise Group of farmers request Supreme Court hearing against Monsanto http://www.geneticliteracyproject.org/glp-articles/madagascar-student-prank-shows-march-against-monsanto-has-heartless-agenda/#.U5v65vmSySp 1/9 6/14/2014 Madagascar student prank shows March Against Monsanto has heartless agenda | Genetic Literacy Project Over the following days, he started posting anti-GMO and anti-Monsanto manifestoes. Here are his outrageous posts that he put up in the days before the March. Click on a tile to view full-size. Navid then started posting pictures of his friends whom he had given anti-GMO signs, each more outrageous then the next. “I made the signs and gave them to my friends to see what your group would say,” he would later write to the March Against Monsanto leaders. Click on each tile to view full-size. Finally, the big day arrived and Navid detailed the fictitious Madagascar March Against Monsanto in lurid detail, making sure to hit all the inflammatory notes that anti-GMO activists strike on their websites. http://www.geneticliteracyproject.org/glp-articles/madagascar-student-prank-shows-march-against-monsanto-has-heartless-agenda/#.U5v65vmSySp 2/9 6/14/2014 Madagascar student prank shows March Against Monsanto has heartless agenda | Genetic Literacy Project Navid would later write: “My teacher (who does not agree with this project because of the trickery) told me that your group will accept almost anything regardless of the scientific process, this was my experiment to see if he is correct.” Was Navid’s cynicism warranted? Anti-GMO protestors’ reactions Judge for yourself. The reaction to the evolving hoax was fascinating—and disturbing. Anti-GMO protestors around the world had picked up on Navid’s pseudo-campaign, reposting his pictures and putting up posts of their own stating that it was better that people go blind than to support the growing of genetically modified vitamin A enhanced Golden Rice—developed not by Monsanto but by a devoted team of independent scientists and foundations donating their time and expertise—that health experts say could save millions from blindness and death. http://www.geneticliteracyproject.org/glp-articles/madagascar-student-prank-shows-march-against-monsanto-has-heartless-agenda/#.U5v65vmSySp 3/9 6/14/2014 Madagascar student prank shows March Against Monsanto has heartless agenda | Genetic Literacy Project The anti-GMOers parroted the words of Trierry Vrain, a former Canadian biotech researcher who has gone rogue, and is now committed to gutting the development of Golden Rice and other independent, life-saving independent GMO innovations. Navid reveals his prank By this time, Navid had had enough. It was time for him to end the deception. This is what he wrote on his blog : To my new friends from March Against Monsanto: I apologize, I have tricked you for many days now, and I must now stop because I am getting http://www.geneticliteracyproject.org/glp-articles/madagascar-student-prank-shows-march-against-monsanto-has-heartless-agenda/#.U5v65vmSySp 4/9 6/14/2014 Madagascar student prank shows March Against Monsanto has heartless agenda | Genetic Literacy Project scared of your community, and even though I do not respect your ways, you are humans and I feel bad tricking you into thinking I am one of your group. You mean well, but you are not using science in a good way to help Madagascar. There was no March Against Monsanto (MAM) in Madagascar. I made the signs and gave them to my friends to see what your group would say. My teacher (who does not agree with this project because of the trickery) told me that your group will accept almost anything regardless of the scientific process, this was my experiment to see if he is correct. In my opinion, he is correct, and your group should not have the same respect as people who are careful about their science. When we talk about science, we must be very careful how we use peoples emotions, otherwise it is manipulation. Below I will put the pictures from our fake protest and write my real thoughts. During this experiment I was encouraged and instructed by MAM organizers to destroy or damage golden rice experiments. I was encouraged to allow locusts to eat all our food crops instead of allowing the emergency use of insecticides (this is a very difficult problem for the Malagasy people!). The signs and “memes” below were made to have no factual truth and are very offensive to many Malagasy people, and yet you shared them, you say you will use them in your marketing, and you encouraged me to take more pictures of “people with diseases” to spread your message. You encouraged me to mistrust a man from the USA who starts organic school gardens here, just because he also thinks that agriculture is complicated and biotechnologies might be able to help us. You encouraged me to stop working with this man and focus instead on vandalizing my imaginary gold rice experiments. This was offensive and unpleasant for me to experience. My experiment was also a failure in another way. I made my signs in a way that I thought was so extreme and offensive that they would be rejected by your community. Instead, all of the signs received compliments, and I could not think of anything more extreme until I searched your own website! My signs were untrue, offensive, and even incoherent or contradictory – but after my experiment, when I look at your websites I ask myself “What is the difference?”. For Madagascar, I think we will be better off if we have nothing to do with March Against Monsanto. I think Monsanto is probably not a good company. I do not know if biotechnology will be good for Madagascar.
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