This week sees the release of the latest issue of the online Formazione, Lavoro, Persona journal, containing an article written by Bassetti Foundation Foreign Correspondent Jonathan Hankins.

This volume is a special issue on food, reflecting recent and ongoing interest in the subject highlighted by the EXPO in Milan. The journal’s title is Feeding Life, Nourishing Spirit, and articles cover topics as broad as nutritional and emotional ambivalence in education, fair trade and the morals of capitalism, and food in the bible.

Hankins offers a description of how the GM food debate is treated within Responsible Innovation scholarship. He argue that the debate around the genetic modification of foodstuffs for both human and animal consumption has become extremely polarized, creating a vicious and self replenishing propaganda cycle. Information is primarily published by interested parties, for example companies promoting GM as a good for society, or organizations opposed to the development of the technology on moral or ethical grounds.

The author feels that this systematic tit for tat propaganda approach has left little or no space for debate. There are few sites of real exchange, leading to a strengthening of polarized positions, and away from a constructive discussion about the pros and cons of such technology.

The journal is free to download, and contains articles in both English and Italian.

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(photo “Puzzle time” by Melissa from Flickr)

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