Lies, fraud and hidden agendas are all tactics today in the battle to shape public perception about food.

They're dirty tools in an ongoing propaganda campaign that long ago crossed the line between science, facts and personal values. The latest incarnation is researchers who hold up selected data from questionable studies as "proof" of results that happen to support their own beliefs.

Anyone who doubts this practice occurs should read a no-holds expose in Forbes entitled, "You Can Put Lipstick On A Pig (Study), But It Still Stinks."

It is a blistering, scathing attack on the methods and messages of what the authors say is, "The tiny cadre of anti-biotechnology activists who reside in the scientific community [that] are perverting science by publishing spurious findings intended to scare consumers, ratchet up regulations, and impede the cultivation and sale of genetically engineered (GE, also known as "genetically modified," or GM) crops.

The article is a stark reminder of what agriculture is up against today: the reality that lies become truth when the audience that hears them isn't knowledgeable enough to know any better.