How do you know what information to trust about glyphosate, GMOs? Do a ‘SMELL test’

Gerald Pilger | January 19, 2017 | Country Guide

Editor’s Note: This article, written by Country Guide agriculture columnist Gerald Pilger, discusses how to determine whether an article is “fake news” or not, using what he calls a smell test, checking the Source, Motive, Evidence, Logic and Left out information within the article to determine how factual it is. He uses the controversy surrounding glyphosate as one example. Genetic Literacy Project

By Gerald Pilger

If our food looks bad, tastes bad, or smells bad, we won’t eat it. So why don’t we treat information the same way? After all, we are told information is power. Information has value. Information is essential to modern society.

So if information “smells” bad, shouldn’t we be wary of consuming it as well?  Dr. John McManus believes so, and he has developed the SMELL test for determining the validity of news and information. “The SMELL test is designed to help anyone discern reliable information in any medium,” McManus says. “So I think it would be helpful for farmers as well.”..........The SMELL test is based on five categories, i.e. Source, Motive, Evidence, Logic, and Left Out........To Read More...