Latest revision as of 20:33, 17 October 2014

NRP UEA Norwich iGEM 2014

Food for thought event - The CUT

In order to gather opinion of our project, we organised an open event on the 26th July 2014 at ‘The Cut’ in Halesworth, Suffolk; a small café and auditorium venue at the heart of a local farming community. The aim of this event was to discuss global food security from various angles; which included talks from academic staff from the UEA and the Norwich Research Park, along with artistic visualisations of food webs and food mileage courtesy of ‘ME AND ER’, and our very own NRP-UEA iGEM stand.

Selection of leaflets and business style contact cards produced for distribution at the food for thought event.

What was the aim of our event?

Our aim for this event was to inform the local farming community and public about our intended project and gather their opinions and ideas to help form a survey to circulate after the event. We had interactive activities for visitors to participate in, along with our poster, business cards and easy-to-read leaflet describing GM, our project and the global food crisis. The event had a good turn-out, with many people expressing interest and giving constructive opinions about our project.

Cara, Jess and Alistair preparing 'green rice' to use in a visual demonstration on food security at The CUT food for thought event.

What feedback on our project did we recieve?

“No-one in power listens to the Norfolk farmers, people at the UEA and JIC are so close, but don’t listen to us”
“The presentations given by the scientists were too technical. Your leaflet is also too technical- we need it in language that we understand”
“How will poorer countries have access to your product, if developed?”
“Will the plant impact other biodiversity? Soil microbiota?”
“Your project is a good idea; we need to find a way to feed the growing population”
“We don’t want DNA that we don’t recognise in our bodies” (argument against GM)

Ethical Disclaimer signs made by the NRP-UEA iGEM 2014 team and placed in prominent positions around The CUT venue to fulfill our ethical responsibilities and ensure the public knew the aim of our food for thought event.

How did we consider the feedback and act upon it?

Given the feedback from this event, we can improve our project in the following ways:

Develop ways in which scientists can engage better with the public and farmers: organise an event where scientists discuss public relations, including talks from public relations experts; explore possibility of meeting with MP(s) to discuss project, publicity, and engagement with the public (JIC scientists are only allowed to engage with farmers/public if the government say so).
Simplify the leaflet we created for the event as well as the poster for public events. This includes checking the readability score of the public information we produce. In light of this event we reduced the readibility score of our leaflet from 17 years of age to 14 years of age, making it more understandable for the wider population without a scientific background.
We made the decision to rganise workshops in schools in order to educate children on aspects of our project, as this event mainly appealed to adults.
Made the decision to develop a possible business plan for the eventual product that our project produces, including costs of product, what crops could the technology be used for, and which countries would be able to use the product in accordance with its GMO laws.
We met with Mark Wilkinson on the ethics approval panel at UEA to research the possible implications our product could have on biodiversity, and the effects it may have on the human body if accidentally consumed.
We would like to use the information collected to produce a set of surveys in order to collect some data about the concerns and opinions of farmers/academics/public about our project and surrounding issues.

The leaflet created by the NRP-UEA 2014 iGEM team which provides basic information about synthetic biology, genetic modification and the Green Canary project which was intended for a public audience of varying backgrounds.

To conclude, this event was very helpful for us to hear the variety of opinions offered from the public. It was a great experience to improve our confidence and communication skills and we will endeavour to address some of the concerns highlighted by the general public regarding the safety and ethical issues.

We created a storify as a visual representation of our event including social media, photos of the event and comments from the public and ourselves.

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@@ Line 75: / Line 75: @@
                    <li><a href="https://2014.igem.org/Team:NRP-UEA-Norwich/HP_CUT">The CUT event</a></li>
                    <li><a href="https://2014.igem.org/Team:NRP-UEA-Norwich/HP_School-Events">The Hewett School</a></li>
-                   <li><a href="https://2014.igem.org/Team:NRP-UEA-Norwich/HP_Science-Cafe">Science Cafe</a></li>
+                   <li><a href="https://2014.igem.org/Team:NRP-UEA-Norwich/HP_Science-Cafe">Science Café</a></li>
                    <li><a href="https://2014.igem.org/Team:NRP-UEA-Norwich/HP_Ethics">Ethics of Public Consultation</a></li>
                  </ul>
@@ Line 109: / Line 109: @@
 <center>
-In order to gather opinion of our project, we organised an open event on the 26th July 2014 at ‘The Cut’ in Halesworth, Suffolk; a small café and auditorium venue at the heart of a local farming community. The aim of this event was to discuss global food security from various angles; which included talks from academic staff from the UEA and the Norwich Research Park, along with artistic visualisations of food webs and food mileage courtesy of ‘ME AND ER’, and our very own NRP-UEA iGEM stand.
+In order to gather opinion of our project, we organised an open event on the 26th July 2014 at ‘The Cut’ in Halesworth, Suffolk; a small café and auditorium venue at the heart of a local farming community. The aim of this event was to discuss global food security from various angles; which included talks from academic staff from the UEA and the Norwich Research Park, along with artistic visualisations of food webs and food mileage courtesy of ‘ME AND ER’, and our very own NRP-UEA iGEM stand.<p>
+</p>
+<p>
+</p>
+<img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2014/a/ab/CUTBUSINESSCARDS.jpg" width=500/><p>
+<p>
+</p>
+<i>Selection of leaflets and business style contact cards produced for distribution at the food for thought event.</i>
+<p>
+</p>
 <h2>What was the aim of our event?</h2>
 Our aim for this event was to inform the local farming community and public about our intended project and gather their opinions and ideas to help form a survey to circulate after the event. We had interactive activities for visitors to participate in, along with our poster, business cards and easy-to-read leaflet describing GM, our project and the global food crisis. The event had a good turn-out, with many people expressing interest and giving constructive opinions about our project.
+<p>
+</p>
+<p>
+<img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2014/e/e1/Dyed_rice_for_The_Cut_26-07-14.jpg" width=500/></p>
+<i>Cara, Jess and Alistair preparing 'green rice' to use in a visual demonstration on food security at The CUT food for thought event.</i>
 <h2>What feedback on our project did we recieve?</h2>
 </center>
+<br>
 <ul>
 <li>“No-one in power listens to the Norfolk farmers, people at the UEA and JIC are so close, but don’t listen to us”</li>
@@ Line 126: / Line 140: @@
 </ul>
 <center>
+<p>
+<img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2014/0/06/Disclaimercut.jpg" width=650/></p>
+<p> <i>Ethical Disclaimer signs made by the NRP-UEA iGEM 2014 team and placed in prominent positions around The CUT venue to fulfill our ethical responsibilities and ensure the public knew the aim of our food for thought event.</i>
 <h2>How did we consider the feedback and act upon it?</h2>
 Given the feedback from this event, we can improve our project in the following ways:
+</center>
 <ul>
 <li>Develop ways in which scientists can engage better with the public and farmers: organise an event where scientists discuss public relations, including talks from public relations experts; explore possibility of meeting with MP(s) to discuss project, publicity, and engagement with the public (JIC scientists are only allowed to engage with farmers/public if the government say so).</li>
@@ Line 137: / Line 157: @@
 <li>We would like to use the information collected to produce a set of surveys in order to collect some data about the concerns and opinions of farmers/academics/public about our project and surrounding issues.
 </ul>
+<center>
+<img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2014/6/69/Cutleaflet1.jpg" width=650/>
+<img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2014/c/c0/Cutleaflet2.jpg" width=650/>
+<p>
+</p>
+<p>
+<i>The leaflet created by the NRP-UEA 2014 iGEM team which provides basic information about synthetic biology, genetic modification and the Green Canary project which was intended for a public audience of varying backgrounds.</i>
+</p>
+</center>
 <p>
 To conclude, this event was very helpful for us to hear the variety of opinions offered from the public. It was a great experience to improve our confidence and communication skills and we will endeavour to address some of the concerns highlighted by the general public regarding the safety and ethical issues.
 </p>
+<p>
+<center>
+We created a storify as a visual representation of our event including social media, photos of the event and comments from the public and ourselves.
+<p>
+ <div class="col-md-12">
+<div class="storify" style="height:750px;overflow:auto;"><iframe src="//storify.com/Lauramcbow/nrpueaigem2014-provide-food-for-thought-at-the-cut/embed" width="100%" height=750 frameborder=no allowtransparency=true></iframe><script src="//storify.com/Lauramcbow/nrpueaigem2014-provide-food-for-thought-at-the-cut.js"></script><noscript>[<a href="//storify.com/Lauramcbow/nrpueaigem2014-provide-food-for-thought-at-the-cut" target="_blank">View the story "NRPUEAiGEM2014 provide Food for Thought at The Cut, Halesworth" on Storify</a>]</noscript></div>
 </center>

Team:NRP-UEA-Norwich/HP CUT

From 2014.igem.org

Latest revision as of 20:33, 17 October 2014

Food for thought event - The CUT

What was the aim of our event?

What feedback on our project did we recieve?

How did we consider the feedback and act upon it?