Public Engagement

Purposes

• Reconfirm whether our perception of genetic modification is correct by conveying information on GMOs to society,
• Explain the usefulness of genetic modification and GMOs to society.
• Disseminate the knowledge gained through iGEM activities to society.
• Define the knowledge gap between non-scientist and scientist regarding genetic modification, and explore the cause.

Results

• We learned the hard way that people have deep-rooted distrust in genetic modification.
• We learned that it was better to engage society by recognizing their concerns and comparing the advantages and disadvantages of both GMOs and organic foods, not only arguing for what we recognize as the good points of GMOs

Methods

• Screen a movie 'Genetic Roulette' to the public.
• Give a complementary explanation to the movie and a presentation on the present condition of genetic modification.
• Take a questionnaire to the audience after finishing the screening.

At the ‘November Festival’, the annual cultural festival of Kyoto University, we participated in screening of the movie 'Genetic Roulette', claiming the danger of crops made with genetic modification, GMO, based on the research results.

iGEM Kyoto tried to eliminate people's fear of genetic modification by disproving the paper introduced in the movie and then making a presentation that put forward the benefits of genetic modification. We found this to be more difficult than expected, and may need to re-consider our strategy for engaging the public.

Presenters

• Daiya Ohara (2nd year student of Resource Bioscience)
• Ren Takimoto (2nd year student of Applied Science)
• Yuishin Kosaka (2nd year student of Applied Science)
• Hao Li (4th year student of Applied Science)

Specific contents of the presentation were as follows.

• ●Examination of the article which was shown as the basis of the assertion in the movie
• ●Introduction of positive opinions on genetic modification
• ●Current state of genetic recombination experiments and iGEM Kyoto's thought about them

After the presentation, a question-and-answer session was held.

• ●It is strange that Monsanto is taking a patent if Monsanto really think for humanity. If Monsanto do not take a patent I can approve genetically modified crops. (impression)
• ●Do you see an indication that this natto (Japanese fermented beans) is not used genetically modified for when you buy natto? Moreover, please let me know the standards for buying food.
  -Yes, I do. But since I am a student and I’m broke, the standards of buying food is price. (Li)
• ●Although in the presentation you have been examining with criticism against the paper that is contrary to genetic modification, you should also examine the papers of genetic modification promotion parties with critical eyes. Also you said it takes one month to apply for genetic modification experiment, in that slide, do you wanted to say it is too long?
  - I believe that it is also necessary to verify papers of genetic modification parties with critical eyes and deepen my understanding. (Takimoto)
  I did not wanted to say it was too long, but I rather wanted to say that management was so thoroughly done (Ohara)
• ●Genetically modified crops should be circulated in the world after 100% safety has been verified. Just because food is not enough, it cannot be said that researches can make genetically modified crops (impression)
• ●I thought that Europe was relatively severe against genetic modification, but I was surprised to see that Monsanto was acquired by Bayer AG, a German agricultural chemical company, and I would like you to explain about it. What is the obligation to display F1 that was made by cross of genetically modified crops and non-genetically modified crops?
  -Organizer responded to the question of Monsanto. I do not know the answer to that question of obligation, but since the producers go through the holes of the law, I think there is no obligation to display. (Ohara)
• ●Will biological diversity be lost if genetically modified crops spread to the field and crossed with non-genetically modified crops?
  - Genetic diversity of crops is originally low because only agricultural crops with excellent character have been selected for a long time. However, when agricultural crops with resistance to pests are spread outdoors, there is a great possibility that it will affect species diversity. (Ohara)

As can be seen from the contents of the question and answer session, some participants in the screening had strong opposition to GMOs, and very intense debate was held.

We learned through this screening that it is very difficult to get people who already have an aversion to GMOs to understand any of even the slightest advantages.In a presentation dealing with issues that are deeply concerned with the values of the people, such as for or against genetic modification, we found that it is better not to make a presentation which unilaterally presses on the merit of GMO like we did, but to make a presentation which engages the audience by comparing both the merits and demerits of organic grown foods with those of GMOs. By doing so, we can form trusting relationship with the participants that produces better results for open and unbiased discussion.

Events

NF

We participated in the ‘November Festival’, a cultural festival at Kyoto University, and conducted a poster session on last year's project.

Many people who came to see posters did not have knowledge of iGEM, so we started by explaining about iGEM and ultimately synthetic biology, and how to apply it. By doing so, we contributed to raising the awareness of synthetic biology in society.

Kansai Forum

This year the iGEM Kyoto team hosted ‘The Kansai Forum’, an annual event gathering together all the iGEM teams across Japan. At the exchange party, all the teams present about their current projects, and openly discuss about it together. Since the event is held in February, every team is at the initial planning stage of their project, so it is a very timely and valuable opportunity to receive opinions from their peers. Even though we are all iGEMers, we are amateurs outside our own field. Therefore, we were able to receive a lot of basic questions, giving us an opportunity to think deeper into our own projects. There were also iGEMers who were experienced about particular projects, so we could get very professional advice.

May Festival

The ‘May Festival’ is the University of Tokyo’s cultural festival which many people visit. We attended and presented our project in the poster session for the first time. People with various backgrounds visited us to listen to our poster session, and we were able to interact with many people. Not only was this a good chance to practice explaining our project to attentive listeners, but they also gave us valuable opinions and advice. Also, we got positive encouragement: “A vineyard pine tree has withered by pine wilt-disease, so please realize the project on pine-wilt disease please feel realized", giving us confirmation that our project was necessary for society. It was a big motivation for us.

Asia Conference

The ‘Asia Conference’ has been held every year since 2013, where iGEM teams in Asia get together. This year, it was organized by Formosa. However, none of the Japanese teams have ever participated, so we joined the Asia Conference as the first Japanese iGEM team. At the Asia conference, presentations, questions and answers were done in the same format as the actual jamboree, and it was a very good exercise for the Giant Jamboree. Also, we could exchange opinions about projects other than presentations, making our project safer and more sophisticated. In addition, we hope that our first-ever attendance from Japan will inspire other Japanese iGEM teams to participate in the Asia Conference in the coming years.