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Developing a communication toolkit on food biotechnologies

Proceedings of the 2020 technical consultation meetings

Year of publication 2020

Place of publication Rome, Italy ;

Pages 58 p.

Author FAO

Publisher FAO ;

Product type Book (stand-alone)

ISBN 978-92-5-133600-7

Edition 1

Synopsis (short abstract) Technical consultation meetings on developing a communication toolkit about food biotechnologies were convened in 2020. At the first of the meetings, held on 11 and 12 June 2020, experts presented communications good practices and lessons learned from efforts to communicate information related to food biotechnologies to the general public at national and regional levels. The points raised were to be included in the toolkit as elements of effective communication from the design phase of the communication strategy to producing and disseminating communication products, as well as evaluating the communication efforts. Following the experts’ presentations, there were questions and discussions about the example materials that were drafted after the first technical consultation meetings covering the following 10 areas: i) FAO background and guidance, ii) fundamentals, iii) human health, iv) the environment, v) safety assessment of genetically modified (GM) foods, vi) regulations, vii) benefits, viii) practical uses and applications, ix) current innovations, and x) public engagements. Prior to the second set of meetings, held on 26 and 27 August 2020, draft example materials were circulated among the experts for their review. Based on their feedback, a plan was made to revise the draft materials. This was discussed at the meetings. The key elements that were identified were to be reflected in the revised example materials. The process to finalize the whole toolkit was to take place offline, but it would involve several discussions with relevant FAO internal teams, as necessary. The toolkit, which contains 51 social media suited materials along with a series of guiding documents, is intended for use by technical-level government officials within the competent authorities and ministries that are in charge of the safety assessment of foods derived from biotechnologies for communicating effectively with the general public.

Cite this content as:

​FAO. 2020. Developing a communication toolkit on food biotechnologies - Proceedings of the 2020 technical consultation meetings. Rome. 

https://doi.org/10.4060/cb2022en

Language English

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