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…
Tag: technology
Feeling Detached from Food Production? Blame Jethro Tull
Written by Steve Savage Many consumers today feel out of touch with how their food is produced and are disturbed by a lot of what they hear about it through their social networks or other sources of information. If it…
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Political Ideologies and the Anti-GMO Movement
Written by Robert Sacerich The Anti-GMO movement has been around since before GM technology first walked across the world stage. The mere hint of it initiated the creation of activist groups against it, and the ideology of anti-GMO began before…
Food Crises and Technological Phobia
Drought across the United States has reduced substantially the expected yield of corn and soybean fields for the fall 2012 U.S. harvests. With reduced yield, prices have risen rapidly for these crops that are widely-used food and feed ingredients, huge…
Want to identify plants with your smartphone?
Editor's Note: We have been receiving a large number of requests to identify plants for people. We don't have the resources or expertise to be able to do this. Please contact a local university extension expert if you are unsure…
What if Bt saved human lives?
When I was in grad school, there was a lab in our department that studied intestinal parasitic roundworms. Although this wasn’t related to what I was doing in any way—everyone who has been to grad school will know that you…
Webcast Tomorrow: Now Serving 9 Billion
I just received word* that a special webcast will be happening tomorrow, Friday the 12th, called Now Serving 9 Billion: Global Dialogue on Meeting Food Needs for the Next Generation. The webcast will occur from 10 am-12 pm U.S. Eastern…
Why do people opposes technology?
In the genetic engineering discussion, within the opposition there emerges a general dislike for "technology." Usually, when people say technology they mean things that are made of metal, plastic, uses electricity, has protruding hypodermic needles, and is usually shiny. The…
Biopharma
Biopharma is such a strange word. To me it sounds sort of sci-fi, evoking images from the 1950s of a future where everything will be high-tech but beautiful and simple at the same time. Of course, not everyone has such…
Farming in Utopia
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…