TRANSGENICS IN BIOCONTROL

The different subsets of issues from public and scientific sources found in our larger study on agricultural and environmental biotechnology were not found in this project that dealt specifically with transgenics in biocontrol.

The public is largely unaware of biocontrol as evidenced by the few Newspaper sources located from the electronic searches. While biocontrol is adequately represented in the Popular Press, surveys from our previous study have indicated that less than 5% of the "general public" reads such sources. The proportion of Popular Press issues representing transgenics was less than half of those found in our larger study.

Biocontrol issues in the Popular Press have been concentrated in science magazines (e.g. Science, and Bio/Technology). There has been very little coverage of biocontrol issues in more general sources such as Time and Newsweek.

Biocontrol has not been associated with many of the more controversial topics in biotechnology such as transgenic food products and public safety. Biocontrol is associated with herbicide resistance (Table 3), 17.8% of Popular Press issues) even though our search did not include that topic in the keywords.

The five issues that emerged as controversial based on divergence of opinion (Table 5) were not drawn from a large number of Popular Press sources. However, these issues represent the best candidates for developing educational materials directed at improving public understanding of biocontrol. While no major sources of opposition to the use of transgenics in biocontrol were identified, these issues represent areas of concern that have not been adequately addressed in public forum and may accentuate public misunderstanding (or opposition) if ignored.