Toward a More Nuanced Science Journalism

Last week, Chicago Tribune reporter Monica Eng wrote about the latest chapter in the debate over genetically modified foods: their unavoidable creep into spaces and places assumed to be GM-free. Eng's counterintuitive lede describes anti-GMO protestors improbably marching outside a Whole Foods – a sign of just how bad the situation has gotten, when even purveyors of organics can't guarantee untainted fare.

The online version features several sobering visuals: a graph showing the disquieting rise in GM soy and corn production over the last decade (such plants now represent 93% and 86% of the US harvest, respectively); a map highlighting states currently deliberating policies to label GM foods; a table listing some of the 40 countries that currently require such labeling. Eng summarizes the industry and environmental health arguments, provides the obligatory pro and con quotations, refers to a couple key surveys of public attitudes about GMOs, mentions some recent epidemiological work, and ends with a boilerplate statement from Monsanto proclaiming the utter adequacy of the status quo ante to ensure "food safety" as supported by "satisfied" experts in...