Tag: Risk management
GM debate: scientists and protesters aren’t polar opposites
Written by Rebecca Nesbit Editor’s note: Republished with permission from The Birds, the Bees, and Feeding the World. My excitement of today was to attend the anti-GM protest organised by Take the Flour Back, joining the group of bystanders wearing ‘Don’t Destroy Research’ badges. Take the Flour Back (I don’t get the name – apparently it’s…
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GE Survey: More believe safe than not, most undecided
In 2010, Thompson Reuters released a survey* (PDF) of public attitudes toward genetically engineered food in the US. They had several significant findings, some of which should be fairly obvious, but some are real eye-openers. The questions were straight-forward and the raw data was posted online, but there was a distinct lack of visual representations…
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Want to study relative risks of GE?
Last Thursday, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) posted a new grant – one that readers of Biofortified might be interested to read about. Called the Biotechnology Risk Assessment Grants Program, (PDF) this grant for up to $1 million for each project is for scientists…
Myths about eggplant (brinjal) as medicine are holding up Indian release of GM brinjal, but brinjal is not a medicine
Book available as pdf for free download (see link below) Previous posts at GMO Pundit have covered GM insect protected eggplant being developed as a new crop variety in India. This insect-protected crop, making use of Bt protein trait, could avoid a large amount of current synthetic pesticide spraying in India and prevent many poisoning…
Genetically modified plants as fish feed ingredients
There has been a long and tortuous discussion of Steve Savage’s post Way Too Much Angst about GMO crops covering many of the usual topics. But among the hundreds of comments there is at last some gold. Fishy smelling gold. A new paper has been kindly unearthed in the comments by (a commenter): Genetically modified…
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Real progress on EU E. coli outbreak: An Egyptian fenugreek seed source to European food disaster?
European Food Safety agency EFSA has traced the food chains from the seed sprout associated E. coli food illness in the EU that has killed 48 people. The evidence is pointing to imported Egyptian fenugreek seeds at this moment in the investigation. CIDRAP provide a good commentary on this, reposted here**. The problem may be…
Oxfam should get serious about malnutrition: Africa needs roads and nitrates
A recent UK Times opinion piece by rational optimist Matt Ridley has really hit the nail of the head about food security, linking together many issues that are repeatedly tackled at this website. The value of fertiliser. The needs of Africa. The tragedy of NGOs that harm people they want to help. Problems and delays caused by…
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