Written by Michael Dzakovich Each day, 20,000 people die from malnutrition. Many die simply because they do not have enough calories - they starve to death. Others die due to lack of vitamins in their food. As the poorest people…
Tag: Genetics
Why don’t farmers save seeds?
Written by Nir Oksenberg Until recently, I never put too much thought into where farmers get the seeds that they grow into the foods we eat. I assumed they saved seeds from their previous crop. I thought this would give…
Gene Editing and GMOs
Gene editing has been getting a lot of attention lately, with an increasing number of articles about this method in the media. In this post, I'll provide a very high level overview of the method (please note that many molecules…
Review of “Complete Genes May Pass from Food to Human Blood”
The 2013 PLoS One article Complete Genes May Pass from Food to Human Blood is often used as evidence that genes from GMO can “transfer” into our bodies (such as in this article from Collective Evolution). In this post, I’d…
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Play it Hard – A Tribute to Dr. Norman Borlaug
The International Center for Maize and Wheat Improvement (CIMMYT) and Biology Fortified have produced a special video tribute to the late Dr. Norman Borlaug, a legendary CIMMYT scientist who developed high-yielding, semi-dwarf wheat that started the Green Revolution which is…
E.coli’s use in GMOs: can you get E.coli poisoning?
For my first post on Biofortified, I'd like to share an account of an exchange that started on Twitter. It all began when I stumbled upon a doozy of a story, about how you can get E. coli poisoning from GMOs.…
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Bobbing for non-browning Arctic® Apples
Bobbing for apples is an old Halloween tradition. In the days before candy and trick-or-treating, the young and unmarried would use their teeth to try to catch apples floating in water or dangling by a string, ultimately to catch a…
GMO How-To Kit: Interactive Future of Biotech Education
Written by Caroline Coatney This summer, the website GMO Answers was launched by the Council for Biotechnology Information in the hopes of making “information about GMOs in food and agriculture easier to access and understand.” As seen in past and…
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NY Times on Saving the Orange
The orange groves in Florida are in trouble. A disease called Citrus Greening is destroying the fruit, the trees, and the future of the industry in the state. Scientists are turning to genetic engineering to create a solution to this…
Analysis of Kaua’i County Bill #2491
Today, the County Council of Kaua'i, Hawai'i is considering a bill, #2491, that would create local regulations of genetically engineered crops and pesticides, and was introduced by Kauai County Councilman Gary Hooser. According to this news article, representatives of the…