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This post was written by a student in the Farm Lunch seminar on Food and Justice, and gets at some larger ideas about societal assumptions regarding scientific objectivity.

I’ve always loved science. Even at young age, Geology, Geography, Astronomy, Physics, no matter the specific field I could never get enough. Maybe my passion stems from it being a method of solving life’s great mysteries, or maybe I’m just a nerd. Fast forward a decade, and here I am, a Biology major who’s come to believe that science is one of the greatest pillars of intellectual advancement in the history of the world. Imagine my surprise then, as I began school at the UW, to find that realistic science is often not actually based on science. Through taking a number of classes as well as talking to a number of researchers and scientifically published authors, it slowly dawned on me that even in a field based on logic and knowledge, it often isn’t what you knew, but who you knew, or rather, if what you knew could be of use to someone, that is important.

It’s widely known in academia that studies that amount to press or attention are those that receive the most funding. Though it may seem obvious, or even innocuous to some, it has the potential to lead to a commoditization of knowledge, ultimately causing a loss of potential due to narrowing of the research focus. My father always taught me that a major mechanism of scientific discovery was the discovery of knowledge often before any use had been determined for it… often called scientific serendipity. What future Viagra-esque discoveries may we be missing, if we lose the hunger for discovery, just for discovery’s sake.

But oh no, funding isn’t the only problem, ever heard of the file-drawer effect?
What would drive a researcher to publish a self-damning study? It’s certainly understandable, but can lead to misinformation from the highest levels of intellectual discovery, which in some circumstances has led to false information being disseminated by the media (shocking!). Continue reading →

This is a blog series that follows the UW Farm Spring lunch seminar on Food and Justice. While these posts are targeted to students in this class, everyone is invited to view the material and reply to posts. You can view the course webpage here.

Today we had a spirited presentation from Eddie Hill, currently a farm manager for Seattle Tilth. Eddie is a progressive planning and design professional with a focus on race, social, and economic justice, and has a background as an urban farmer. He co-founded Creatives4Community, as well as their GroundUP Organics program, and currently is helping to transition the BURST Immigrant & Refugee Farm Incubator to Seattle Tilth’s Organic Farms Incubator Program in conjunction with the King County CPPW Funding. In addition, he emphasizes that he’s often one of the very few minority participants and leaders in societal efforts to create a more sustainable food system. Needless to say, he has some stuff to talk about.

Eddie had an informational slideshow on food justice statistics and recommendations, which I encourage everyone to look through:

Continue reading →