Stronger Plants, Stronger Science, and Stronger Communication
In the NY Times article “A Dying Breed,” some people fear that African Ankole cattle will disappear, to be replaced by Holsteins. The hardy Ankole can endure heat and drought, have tasty lean meat, but produce little milk. Holsteins can be rather fragile, but are milk factories. Who can blame some African farmers for trying…
As discussed in “Farming in Utopia“, one of the benefits of modern farming is that it requires fewer people to produce more food. This benefit is ignored by those who wish to eschew technology in farming. People who have the luxury of choice shouldn’t force their choices on those with no choices at all. A…
As explained in the press release “Gene guards grain-producing grasses so people and animals can eat“, USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) researchers at Purdue (pictured at left) have isolated the gene that confers fungus resistance to grasses. The gene produces an “enzyme that disarmed the fungus’ disease-causing toxin. The detoxification isolated the infection at the…
In Why your fertility cells must have ‘radio silence’, researchers from Canada and Japan explain their discovery: “a previously unknown mechanism which causes embryonic germ cells – which later develop into sperm or ova – to go through a period of ‘transcriptional silence,’ during which information from the cell’s DNA cannot be copied. Without this…
An effort to protect the world’s germplasm will culminate in the opening of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault on 26 February 2008, as reported by the BBC. This is a great idea, especially as habitat loss combines with climate change. We’re going to loose a lot of species and sub-species, which could leave the food…
What farming is today, what it should be, and what people think it should be are very different things. Pro-organic, pro-biointensive mini- and maxi-activists have a distinct idea of what they think farming should be, but don’t quite understand all of the ramifications. For the most part, I heartily agree with them, but I do…
The “evidence” against genetic engineering is typically not evidence at all. It is usually hearsay that isn’t backed up by science, a misplacing of blame, or a misunderstanding about farming, biotechnology, or biology in general. This isn’t necessarily the fault of people who believe this “evidence” – the fault lies in the lack of solid…
Researchers at Texas A&M have developed carrots that have more bio-available calcium than wild-type carrots, according to a press release. Calcium deficiency leads to osteoporosis, which is one of the world’s most common diseases – affecting an estimated 50% of women and 25% of men. This is especially true when dairy is not an option…
London’s Times Online had a great editorial about GMOs this past week, called “Frankenstein foods are not monsters.” It’s a sort of wake-up call to England and Europe, saying that the benefits of genetic engineering far outweigh hypothetical dangers that are based more on gut feeling than science and that still haven’t manifested. Unfortunately, the…
Back in October, I posted about Poplar trees genetically engineered to remove carcinogens from groundwater. The project is moving from the experimental stage into real world application, as described in Fighting pollution the poplar way. The test site was used for oil storage in the 1960s, and became contaminated with trichloroethylene. TCE is an industrial…