Howdy doodie all you foodies, Frank N. Foode™ here with a brand new Community Contest for y’all!
Gosh, it has been too long since our last contest in November, the first annual FrankenFood Carving Contest – and I have a bit of a confession to make: I forgot to announce the winner! While several fantastic pumpkins were carved, one entrant thought outside the jack-0-lantern varietal box and went with a Spaghetti Squash. Still Cucurbita pepo, but hilariously carved and lit up! I think this is what I looked like when I read what Andy Kimbrell said way back when. Check out the head splitting, string-vomiting action!
So our third community contest, the carving contest goes to GregH, who is also an undergrad horticulture and finance major with quote a collection of plants listed on his profile page. Is that popping sorghum as well? Coolness. Greg wins an embroidered cotton canvas shopping bag (complete with custom pocket with a pen-holder), along with a Norman Borlaug commemorative coin! Maybe belated but just in time for farmer’s markets in the spring, no?
Back in October, I really jumped on this community contest concept, probably too many at once, and the winner of our second contest also got lost in the shuffle. They found out that they won by email, mind you, but all of you need to know as well. The theme for this contest, if you recall, was to nominate someone you disagree with. And for being a thoughtful and courteous commentator we have awarded the victory bag to the one and only Bernarda! This is what Anastasia had to say in her nomination:
[Bernarda] has contributed greatly to conversation by bringing new perspectives and presenting them in a non-argumentative way. I feel that a lot of times we all just talk past people we disagree with, which is frustrating and unfruitful. But with Bernarda, particularly on the Miracle Plants: Fallacy or New Frontier post, I think we’re not talking past each other any more but actually having some real discussion.
Isn’t that what we’re here for? I’ll keep to one contest per month from now on, but hey I’m just a plant – so please remind me at the end of the month if I forget! Give a round of congratulations to our winners, and on to contest number 4!
Community Contest #4: Feel the Love
There have been lots of discussions here lately, and in the last couple of months, we have had some great posts and comments on the topic of coexistence between genetic engineering and organic/non-GE farming. I don’t know about you but I would like to see more of this! Each community contest has a special theme to it, and I would like this to be the theme for our fourth contest. Here are a list of posts that touch on the topic of coexistence to get you thinking about who deserves your nomination:
Coexistence isn’t easy
Vilsack looks for solution on Coexistence
Coexistence takes Conversation
What the Heck is Alfalfa Anyway?
Biofortified on the Alfalfa EIS
Organic Infighting over GE Alfalfa
Can we Coexist?
Here are the rules for contest #4:
- Anyone can nominate someone for this contest, but must link to at least one comment (can be several) by that author.
- Editors (and me) are ineligible for the contest – but contributing authors can get in on the action.
- Comments can be from any date in the past, present, or future. They can be comments on posts or in the forum.
- Preference will be given to comments discussing Coexistence – but awesome comments that do not fit this description will also be considered.
- In order to accept the award, comment author must be registered, fill out at least some of their profile, and have a picture uploaded for their avatar. (Profile can be done after the winner is announced. Picture need not be a human photo – how about a cool plant?)
- The winner(s) will be judged on how awesomely smart, cool, funny, and productive their comments are. We want to reward people that help elevate the discussion and give them a special status in the community.
- Nominations will close on Saturday April 9th at midnight Pacific Standard Time. (End of the day, not the beginning!)
- Winner(s) will be decided by Biofortified’s editors, and will be announced on Monday the 11th.
Prizes
Biofortified just got a wonderful stack of books that we thought you might enjoy reading. So for this contest, the winner gets to choose either a Biofortified canvas bag as usual, or one of any of the books listed on our new Community Contest page. Some titles include:
- Denialism, How Irrational Thinking Hinders Scientific Progress, Harms the Planet, and Threatens our Lives, by Michael Specter.
- The Conscientious Gardener, Cultivating a Garden Ethic, by Dr. Sarah Hayden Reichard
- Empty Pleasures: The Story of Artificial Sweeteners from Saccharin to Splenda, by Dr. Carolyn de la Pena
- Tomorrow’s Table, Organic Farming, Genetics, and the Future of Food, by Dr. Pamela Ronald and Raoul Adamchak
There are a whole lot more books on our list a – little something for everybody, so check em out. And if we get a good turnout for this contest we might be forced to give more away! So remember, comments made up until the last minute count – so there’s still time to put in a fantastic comment and earn the love of your peers!
Alright, I would like to nominate the first individuals. The first person i would like to nominate is Francis Thicke. He came by the blog and stuck around politely asking questions and answering them. One of his questions became a post unto itself, and kept the conversation going. While he is himself an organic dairy farmer and talked about his concerns, he avoided the rhetoric that we have heard from others that have described GE alfalfa as a “disaster” for organics.
The second person I would like to nominate is Ewan R. He has left many informative comments, and picked apart the comments of others in a manner that demonstrates that he truly enjoys finding the truth and tossing out the untruths.
Anyone else?
Jonathon for
This
and similar in the Francis Thicke generated threadlet
MaryM for This and any number of other posts where the awesome has been released (I’m personally too lazy to dig out more than one reference per person – but I’m sure connoisseurs of awe could quite easily find any number of other suitable posts in a similar vein.
I’ll give Ewan a nod for coming up with a way to include:
in the GM Salmon discussion! 🙂
Salmon
I’m putting my vote in favor of Ewan R.
Agricultural biotechnology, and the corporations which offer that technology to farmers, have suffered badly from the mistaken notion that it is inappropriate to directly confront the anti-biotech contingent.
After 14 years, we have abundant evidence that ‘ignore them and they will go away’ does not work. We also have ample evidence that corporations which offer agro biotech to farmers look like ineffectual pusillanimous wimps, as a consequence of adopting that perspective.
Acting the victim is not a comfortable position for a seed company.
Corporations that are willing to say ‘expletive you’ to the Luddites will directly help farmers, consumers, and shareholders.
In spite of past differences, Ewan has my vote.
I know it is off the point but all you guys are here in this thread. You guys are awesome. I step aside and let you guys bring the facts in.