Why do so many people believe that seedless grapes cause infertility?

Recently, the grape is seedless because the rumor dipped in contraceptive made many "onlookers" panic, and the sales of seedless grapes in some producing areas were even affected. Fortunately, the experts refuted the rumors in time, which reduced the negative impact to a certain extent.

In recent years, the rumors spread in life are sensational, many of which are related to agricultural products. For example, cooking with vegetable oil can cause cancer, cucumbers with thorns and flowers can cause infertility, eating strawberries can cause cancer, and so on. Some rumors that could have been distinguished by simple common sense have also been widely spread, and agricultural products have become the hardest hit areas by rumors.

It is believed that there is irrationality behind the rumors, but we should also pay attention to the causes of this irrationality. Sudan red, poisoned milk powder, gutter oil. In recent years, agricultural product safety incidents have occurred from time to time, leaving a psychological shadow on many consumers. So once there are rumors about food safety, many people's first reaction is to believe it rather than nothing. Indeed, at the beginning of the seven things, firewood, rice, oil, salt, soy sauce and vinegar tea, the safety of agricultural products is closely related to everyone's vital interests, with the continuous improvement of the level of consumption, it is understandable that people pay more attention to the health and safety of agricultural products. But why do some ridiculous rumors make many people believe it? Because it does require some professional knowledge to discern rumors, but because many consumers lack access to information about various links of agriculture-- production links, how many chemical fertilizers and pesticides are used; transportation links, whether fresh-keeping is up to the standard; and processing links, it is not clear whether harmful chemicals have been added. On the topics that the masses are most concerned about, the insufficient supply of true, accurate, transparent and timely information will naturally make some people believe rumors because of their hunger for information.

It should be said that consumers' doubts about the safety of agricultural products reflect the progress of consumption concept to a certain extent. The enhancement of public awareness of the maintenance of their own rights and interests can also play a certain role of social supervision, forcing the improvement of the quality and safety of agricultural products. However, if we overcorrect, blindly catch shadows, believe rumors, or even spread rumors, the social harm caused by them should not be underestimated. Wrong information can affect consumers' choices. For farmers, the fermentation of rumors will affect the sales of agricultural products, and even the fruits of a year's hard work will pile up in the fields and rot on the trees. Just like "eating strawberries causes cancer" in moments last year, the price of strawberries plummeted, and growers in Beijing lost as much as 10 million yuan.

To put an end to rumors, the most fundamental thing is to weave a dense safety and security network for agricultural products. Providing safe agricultural products to reassure consumers should be the concept that runs through the entire agricultural production process, and it should also be a criterion that all participants must abide by. As agricultural producers and operators, whether they are ordinary farmers or the main body of a new type of production and operation, they should start with me, start with the details, pay attention to quality, ensure safety, and use practical actions to dispel consumers' worries and build up confidence. The government should change the supervision of the quality and safety of agricultural products from multi-management to the cooperation of relevant departments, establish a traceability system from the field to the table, and let a transparent and efficient system protect the safety of agricultural products.

To put an end to rumors, information asymmetry should also be reduced. On the one hand, the government enhances the awareness of information release and implements a regular information release mechanism to reduce the crisis of trust caused by the lack of information; on the other hand, it helps the public to improve their ability to distinguish rumors. To increase the public's knowledge reserve and scientific literacy is an important task of science popularization. Agricultural science popularization cannot be absent, and it is necessary to identify the issues that the masses are most concerned about, make use of new media and other forms to enhance the interest of science popularization, and make the public willing to participate and accept it, so as to enhance their "antibodies" to rumors.

In addition, agricultural producers and operators should also pay attention to improving the transparency of production information. At present, many people have begun to explore that through the development of sightseeing and leisure agriculture, consumers can go into the fields and participate in the life cycle of agricultural products by claiming, customizing, picking, and so on; there are also people who use "Internet +" to solve difficult problems, allowing consumers to scan QR codes in the supermarket and obtain information about products in all aspects, all of which help consumers to generate trust because of their understanding.

In the risk society, one hair affects the whole body. A rumor in the online world often affects the livelihood of farmers and the dining table of residents. We must make efforts in many ways to keep the truth ahead of the rumors.