Citation

Stone GD. Issues Sci. Technol. 2014; 30(3): 18.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2014, U.S. National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering and Institute of Medicine)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

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Abstract

Farmer suicide is a complex problem that can hardly be blamed on a bank policy change that Kloor heard about at a conference. Most small farmers do not even borrow from banks, and anyway this begs the question of why cotton farmers' need for credit has risen. State-encouraged, pesticide-intensive hybrid cotton spread during the 1990s, contributing to intractable problems in ecology, farm economics, and farmer decision-making. For GMO brawlers like Kloor and Moore and Shiva, the aim is to enflame the like-minded, and hopefully to spread 'motivated reasoning' to the undecided. Motivated reasoners use low standards of proof for claims they like, high standards for ones they do not, and fixate on trashing opponents' weakest arguments instead of actually considering their strongest. Villainization encourages motivated reasoning, and then charges of murder by the likes of Shiva and Moore really clear the benches.

Language: en