Our project uses a plant chassis. Historically, especially in Europe, the media and general public have not accepted the genetic modification of plants. As our plants are designed as 'sentinels' (early-warning canaries!) and not as food plants, we were interested to find out how people would respond. We were also interested in whether people thought scientists have an ethical obligation to work towards food security and if they thought that biotechnology and synthetic biology should be used to meet that need. We held two events and visited an elementary school. We also learned a lot about how to ensure that public consultation is ethical.