This week in “Better Know a Scientist”, I’m interviewing entomologist Amelia Jordan. Amelia graduated with her MSc in Entomology from Washington State University in 2014 where she studied the presence of native bees in alfalfa seed fields. If you missed…
Read More Better Know a Scientist: Entomologist Amelia Jordan
Everybody needs to eat. Agriculture is the cornerstone of civilization, and by 2100 we'll need to be a lot better at agriculture because there may be as many as 11 billion people on this planet. Unfortunately, agriculture is also extremely…
Written by Jonas Kathage Despite the fact that the global area of GM crops has grown rapidly over the past decade and now encompasses more than 170 million hectares it is still questioned whether current applications of genetic engineering in…
Read More A new meta-analysis on the farm-level impacts of GMOs
Television personality Dr Oz has released a video about a herbicide called Enlist Duo. Virtually nothing in this video is accurate.
A recent paper published in The Bulletin of Insectology claiming that neonicotinoids are the sole cause of CCD has been circulating in the media. The author, Chensheng Lu, has a history of doing research that makes spurious claims about the…
Read More Are Neonicotinoids the Sole Factor Responsible for Colony Collapse Disorder?
Written by Kevin Folta Last week the anti-biotech websites exploded with the news: "Roundup Weedkiller Found in 75% of Air and Rain Samples, Gov. Study Finds" and more scary-sounding titles like that. My first response was to get a copy…
Read More Roundup in 75% of Air? What the report actually says
Written by Kevin Folta Over on Huffington Post’s Food for Thought Blog they have offered their bandwidth to a series of voices to expand on the epic science narrative Farmed and Dangerous. “Farmed” is a slick and cute, yet intellectually simple…
Written by Steve Savage The pesticides that farmers use to protect their crops have changed a great deal over the last few decades. While improvement is something we expect from technologies as diverse as pharmaceuticals, electronics or plant breeding, few…
Bill 2491 on the Island of Kaua'i has had its share of controversy, both scientific and political. The bill, concerning pesticide use and genetically engineered crop research, was substantially modified from its original version, passed by the County Council, and…
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…
Read More Kaua’i County Bill 2491 passes 6-1, Vetoed by Mayor
