Honored to have the GMO series recognized by the Society of Environmental Journalists (second place in the category of Outstanding In-depth Reporting). Loving the judges comments so much -- because they really explain just what I was trying to do -- I am pasting them all in here. The Facts About GMO’s by Amy Harmon, for The New York Times Judges comments: Genetically modified organisms have the potential to combat plant diseases and help feed a warming, overpopulated planet. Yet the public is not convinced, in part because of opposition that’s based on fear not facts. Amy Harmon’s detailed and compelling series for The New York Times challenges the conventional story line about GMOs. She builds her pieces around characters whose experiences illustrate the larger narrative. A Florida orange grower whose crop is threatened by a devastating bacterium knows that genetic engineering could offer a cure, but wonders if consumer hostility to all things GMO will doom his orange juice in the court of public opinion. A Hawaiian county council member who did his own research to understand the issue comes to realize — as does the reader — that emotion, not science, has driven the debate. In the developing world, a strain of rice modified to provide a key vitamin has not yet reached the hungry because of protests. In this story, Harmon focuses on misplaced fears. There were many worthy submissions for this year’s Carmody prize. Harmon’s project rose to near the top for her meticulous, dispassionate reporting that illuminates both the false arguments and the solid science.
Posted on: Fri, 01 Aug 2014 18:43:18 +0000
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