Support Science Communication at Plant Biology 2017

Aloha! We have some exciting news to report about the upcoming Plant Biology 2017 conference in Hawaii, and are asking for your help in bringing top-notch training in science communication to the next generation of students and scientists. We face many challenges and our world desperately needs informed policy and improved technologies to meet those challenges, many of which will have plant science serving a crucial role such as in agriculture, food, fiber, fuel, and fun. We’re going to “Talk Story” at our workshop, and need your help to keep everyone energized and to thank our speakers for helping make this happen.

What we’re doing

On Saturday, June 24th, we are hosting a workshop on using human-centered storytelling for science communication, using compelling examples that touch on plant biology from Hawaii and across the Pacific. This will be followed by group activities and a panel discussion, along with resources for our attendees to help them get started. The workshop will happen right at the beginning of the Plant Biology 2017 conference in Honolulu, Hawaii, so there will be four days of plant biology for our 165 registered attendees to think about through the lens of communicating science through human-centered stories.

Dennis Gonsalves and an enthusiastic fan, Credit: KJHvM

Talks will include the story of the Hawaiian Papaya by Dennis Gonsalves, Sudden Ohia Death by Ambyr Mokiao-Lee, communicating science in a politically-charged environment with Sarah Thompson, and Bt Brinjal with a video by Arif Hossain. While the event is currently full, we will be recording the talks so anyone who couldn’t make it can still take part.

What we need

Everything is in place for a great and memorable experience for our attendees. We are going to have fresh Hawaiian papayas for them to eat, along with coffee to help counteract jet lag and wake everyone up to start thinking about science communication. As you probably know, conference center catering is expensive, and with 165 people getting coffee and papayas, the cost is high! We would like to do something special for our speakers and panelists to thank them for volunteering their time to make this happen. There will also be a few printing costs.

All told, $1,000 will cover our costs. If we are not able to raise the whole amount before the workshop, it will not jeopardize our plans, and that is thanks to the contributions of our Sustaining Members. So you can donate with confidence that your support will go toward this and other great projects.

What you get

Anyone who donates $50 or more before the workshop on the 24th will get acknowledged by name at the start of the proceedings, for one. Second, dozens of young scientists could take up the mantle of trying their hand at storytelling to communicate science, and it could have far-reaching impacts. Finally, after the conference is over, we will be uploading videos of the talks to Youtube and Plantae so that everyone can benefit from it!
Mahalo, and we appreciate your support!

Name our Papaya Plushie!

As some of you may have seen on Twitter and Facebook, a new round of draft Frank N. Foode™ and Papaya Plushies has come out. While Frank is almost ready to go, we have finished the design process for our new papaya plushie! Soon, I will have the design samples in my hands to look at before we place our order, but in the meantime I would like to tell you what our plan is for our papaya character, and we would like your help with coming up with a good name for it!
Without any further ado, here is our new papaya plushie design!

Note the color gradient taken from real papayas, the realistic plump design, papaya leaves, flower, and freckles just like our artist Celestia drew for us! Since the draft image went out on social media, we’ve heard back from readers, kickstarter backers, papaya farmers, and people who at first passed on the papaya who are rapidly changing their minds! This papaya, like Frank, will be more than just a plushie – it will have a character and a story of its own to tell. Continue reading “Name our Papaya Plushie!” →

GMO Papayas are about People

DSC_0029b — My dorky “OMG It’s Dennis Gonsalves!” shot

Last August, I was invited to speak about genetically engineered crops at a GMO Summit organized by the Hawai’i Crop Improvement Association. The event was held on the big island of Hawai’i, known for its enormous volcanoes, long beaches, and coffee and papaya farms. The HCIA flew me in to speak (honorarium declined), I stayed at people’s houses, and while I was in the state I knew I really wanted to see a papaya farm and to meet Dr. Dennis Gonsalves, who developed the genetically engineered ringspot virus-resistant papayas known as SunUp and Rainbow. So I sent him an email, and he was delighted to show me around, and even took me to his home to cook with his papayas!
Early on a Sunday morning, I met Dennis on the side of the road in Puna. My host Eric was driving, and Jon Entine and his host Judi met us at the same intersection. Not far away, protesters were walking with signs objecting to hydrothermal power. I had only seen pictures of Dennis before today, so I did not know what to expect. I had seen his picture in a wall of famous agricultural scientists in the Chicago Museum of Science & Industry, but now here he was! Continue reading →

Papaya Scientists sing Somewhere Over the Rainbow

Last summer, I had the privilege of meeting Dr. Dennis Gonsalves, who is the scientist behind the genetically engineered Rainbow and SunUp papayas in Hawai’i. I toured a papaya farm, and went to his house to spend the afternoon with Dennis and his wife Carol, and we talked about the development of the GMO papaya – which they were both involved in. But best of all, we shared a meal made from many different papaya dishes, all using the papaya that they developed (You will be able to see a glimpse of this food at a later date)!
When we sat down to eat, I and everyone else in attendance was treated to something special, which I will now share with you. Dennis whipped out his Ukulele and he and Carol sang, not just for us, but for all of you. The love their work, and while political controversy still continues to surround the Rainbow papaya 15 years after it was released and helped the farmers of Hawai’i, they can’t keep themselves from expressing how they feel about it through song. Continue reading “Papaya Scientists sing Somewhere Over the Rainbow” →

Huber’s claims in Maui lack evidence

Yesterday, Dr. Don Huber spoke in Maui as part of an event that kicked off a political campaign to ban genetically engineered crops from the island. The same day, a letter to the editor by Dr. Harold Keyser, a retired soil scientist from the University of Hawaii, appeared in the same paper that gave a spotlight to the Huber event.

Due to a time constraint, Huber took about 10 minutes to answer a few questions, so there was not the time for Keyser to ask a question at this event.* Dr. Keyser’s letter to the editor is republished with his permission here.
Continue reading “Huber’s claims in Maui lack evidence” →

A Plant Scientist’s perspective on bill 113

papaya-farm — A Puna papaya farm, Credit: KJHvM

Today, the Hawai’i County Council will hear testimony concerning bill 113, which seeks to ban or limit most genetically engineered plants on the island. The bill is a successor to bill 79, which was withdrawn. While Kaua’i county debates the production of GMOs and the spraying of pesticides, the Big Island stands alone in debating a bill solely about genetically engineered crops.
Bill 113 would ban the cultivation of genetically engineered plants in the open air, except for papayas and other crops that specific people or organizations have grown on a location in the past. For instance cattle farmers who grow genetically engineered corn would still be able to do so, while other farmers who haven’t been growing them yet across the street would be barred from adopting them. The bill also requires that everyone who grows them both in the open and in an enclosed space register with the county and pay a $100 annual fee. Finally, the bill lays out an exemption in case of an emergency, where the county may allow farmers to grow GMOs for a limited time period if their crops are threatened by a “plant pestilence,” which they defined as pests or disease.
The bill has numerous problems, in my opinion. It inadequately justifies limiting the rights of farmers on the island, and where it tries to make exceptions based on historical use or emergencies, it will introduce inequities and would fail to protect Hawai’ian farmers when pests or disease hit their farms. The reason why it would fail to protect them lies in a misunderstanding about how plant breeding and genetic engineering work – and the law is written such that when an exemption is allowed, it will be too late to develop and approve a home-grown biotech solution.
Naturally, I felt compelled to submit testimony. It is my opinion that this bill would be bad for Hawai’i, and I urge the Hawai’i County Council not to approve bill 113. Continue reading →

Kaua’i County Bill 2491 passes 6-1, Vetoed by Mayor

kauaisunset — Kauai Sunset, credit: KJHvM

On Wednesday, October 16, the Kaua’i County Council approved Bill 2491, after much public discussion and council hearings. The final council hearing lasted 14 hours, and ended at 3:30 am local time. The bill, introduced by councilmembers Gary Hooser and Tim Bynum, establishes additional rules and regulations for the use of pesticides and genetically engineered crops on the Garden Island.
Initiallly, bill 2491 contained provisions that would set up a county-level approval and registration process for genetically engineered crops, and a moratorium on their expansion pending the completion of a mandated Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). The pesticide provisions would limit the use of “restricted use” pesticides, a carefully regulated class of pesticides that require trained applicators to use, and “experimental use” pesticides, which are inputs that are approved for use on certain crops but are being tested on others (and are not themselves experimental). Continue reading →

A Week On An Island Of Angst

Written by Steve Savage

“The Scream” by Edvard Munch from CHRISTOPHER MACSURAK

I’ve just returned from a week on Kauai. It is known as “The Garden Isle” of the Hawaiian chain, but recently that garden has been heavily sown with seeds of fear, suspicion, and conspiratorial narratives. On Wednesday, the 31^st, there was a marathon session of the County Council during which hundreds of people lined up to give testimony about Bill 2491 from 1 pm until midnight. Angst was a common theme. The activist speakers made hyperbolic assertions about heartless corporations perfectly willing to sicken the entire population of the island and destroy the environment. Many non-agricultural residents expressed their palpable fear for the safety of their families. Some of the employees of the seed or coffee companies tried to explain to their fellow islanders that they and their families also live there, and so they would never want to put either their families or neighbors at risk. These people have good reason to worry about the future of their jobs. Continue reading →

Why I’m Going To Hawaii: Simply to Share Science

Written by Kevin Folta

It is the best of times. Science has improved our communications, medicine, transportation, and security. It has taught us about the large and the small and taught us about the fundamental building blocks of life’s information- the genes that define human form and function. As a scientist I still get goosebumps when I read about a new disease therapy, a new finding in how plants respond to pests, or an improved way to see exo-planets. I feel overwhelmingly privileged that my parents exposed me to science early and cultivated my interests. I’m grateful for the ability to attend college, grateful for my mentors throughout graduate school, and grateful for my colleagues, postdocs and students in my lab today. It is a great time to be a scientist.
But the road to a career in science is rigorous and oftentimes unattractive. Low pay, insane hours, experiments that fail, all in preparation for complete career uncertainly at the end of your training. Those that weather this trail show unbridled commitment to the discipline, and more times than not, they are not interested in sharing their work beyond the peer-reviewed journals and scientific conferences. The discipline does not select for enthusiastic public communicators.
Maybe I’m a little different. Science is so important and exciting that I have to share it. I want you to know about it. I want you to understand it. Over the years I’ve talked to hundreds of public audiences, from 1st graders to retirees, about issues like water conservation, crop domestication and growing plants in artificial light environments in space. That’s fun. Continue reading “Why I’m Going To Hawaii: Simply to Share Science” →

Why I’m Going to Hawaii to Defend the Maize Winter Nurseries

Written by Steve Savage

800px-Hawaiian_Islands_satellite — The Hawai’ian Island chain (source: Wikimedia)

Hawaii currently plays an important role in the global food supply – one far more important than that of its historical sugarcane and pineapple industries. When the economic viability of plantation agriculture declined in the 1990s, a number of international seed companies began to use some of that land as a “winter nursery” site. The mild climate allows multiple generations/year of crops like corn/maize. This helps to accelerate the breeding, testing and early seed increase of that critically important feed/food/fuel crop.
Globally over 850 million metric tons of maize is produced each year (2010 data, FAOStats). Many regions of the world are net importers of maize (82 million metric tons total, Asia 49, Africa 12, Middle East 11, W. Europe 5.9, Caribbean 2.2, Central America 2.1). This is a crop that matters. Continue reading →