Stronger Plants, Stronger Science, and Stronger Communication
(Hat tip to Southest Farm Press) Cyndi Barmore authored a report for the USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service titled The Unexplored Potential of Organic-Biotech Production. It was published on May 26, 2009, but I just heard about it now. Here’s the introduction: The organic movement rejects biotechnology as inherently contradictory to its fundamental goal of promoting…
On Friday the 3rd of July, GE labeling campaigner Craig Winters died. He was fighting an ongoing cancer battle, with multiple back surgeries and other treatments to boot. Winters was involved in political efforts to label genetically engineered crops for many years, which never succeeded. His most recent effort was during the 2008 Presidential campaign….
When you bring up GE crops to people, one of the common objections is “Can’t these GMOs cause allergies?” Sure it is possible, as with any plant genetic modification (including breeding), which is why GE crops are tested for allergenicity according to regulations. But now, it seems, the opposite may be true. “Can’t we use…
Just out today, Seed Magazine has assembled a “Scientific Flip Flop” about Genetically Engineered crops. The article begins with an introduction into the curious case of European nations who embrace scientific conclusions in other areas of science, but not in this area. Most Europeans don’t consider themselves to be anti-science or particularly technophobic. In fact,…
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Although half of my day was spent traveling to the BIO convention There was still plenty for me to see starting at lunchtime. During Tuesday’s lunch, they gave awards to high school students for biotech-related research, and the Governor of Georgia, Sonny Perdue gave a speech positioning Georgia as a future center for biotech research….
Hello everybody. This morning I caught a red eye flight to Atlanta, Georgia. Although this trip has been almost three months in the making, I’ve been so busy getting ready that I have not had the time to give everyone the heads-up with a blog post. (Busy making time in my research, that is. Packing…
Earlier this year, I heard about a plant science video contest called Chlorofilms. Supported by a grant from the American Society of Plant Biologists, (ASPB) they wanted to encourage people to produce informative and entertaining plant science videos and organize the best of them on one website. Their deadline was in early March, and I…
Although this is not related to plants, this certainly has implications for plant genetics. I have just received notice that th ACLU has filed a lawsuit against Myriad Genetics, the company that owns the patents on the BCRA1 and BCRA2 breast and ovarian cancer genes in humans. According to this press release, the ACLU charges…
(via onegoodmove) Philip Alcabes was just on the Daily Show, and talked about how our fear gets the better of us. We fear things that are less real than the real dangers that we are exposed to every day. Here is the interview: The Daily Show With Jon Stewart M – Th 11p / 10c…
Luigi at the Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog links to a pretty good, balanced article about GE crops in both Peru and Honduras. Travis Lupik interviewed a bunch of people, including farmers, to write Doctored crops stir Latin American debate, published at Straight. Take a read. There were a couple slight problems, such as how the article…