12/31/08 Pseudo science fallacy

Numbers can be manipulated to prove or disprove just about anything. Science can be used the same way. I'm Jeff Keane; I'll be back in one minute with an example. There is science and then there is junk science. Junk science can be used to promote an agenda by running a convenient little study then using it to draw the conclusions that are needed. Dave Jolley, writing for cattlenetwork revealed such a scenario. Mr. Jolley tells of the "scientific" test run by Hope Jahren and Rebecca Kraft then released through the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The study looked at menu items served at McDonald's, Wendy's and Burger King by using a technique to identify carbon and nitrogen isotopes in meat to determine the animal's diet and in what condition they were raised. Well the initial test to find carbon and nitrogen in the meat products was probably a valid test, but that was about the end of any actual science. Jahren and Kraft concluded the cattle and poultry were fed corn and raised in extreme confinement. Jahren also stated the nitrogen in the meat products were so high they were consistent with an environment where animals eat their own wastes. Mr. Jolley wonders if PETA or the Humane Society of the United States didn't contribute to the term "extreme confinement." Dr. Frank Monahan, University college Dublin says the high nitrogen could be from feed grown with nitrogen fertilizers not confinement practices. Tomorrow, more comments refuting the "findings" of the two pseudo researchers. I'm Jeff Keane. Dave Jolley, cattlenetwork, 11/14/08