Genetically engineered crops
pronald | March 8, 2013A Rebuttal : Collide-a-Scape.
Keith Kloor;: "When I drew attention to the piece via Twitter yesterday, there was near instantaneous shock and outrage to it from some scientists. Others also shook their heads in disbelief. "
Read on
pronald | February 25, 2013Mark Lynas » Golden promise: How ‘biofortification’ could soon be saving hundreds of thousands of lives.
pronald | February 9, 2013Greg Jaffe, Center for Science in the Public Interest, addresses myths on GE crops. What You Need to Know About Genetically Engineered Food - Greg Jaffe - The Atlantic.
pronald | February 3, 2013Respected writer Jared Diamond recently published an overall excellent opinion piece in the New York Times discussing how we often obsess about the wrong things, while failing to watch for real dangers.
Jared Diamond’s Guide to Reducing Life’s Risks - NYTimes.com.
Many of us in the Plant biology community were quite surprised at one phrase buried in an otherwise excellent article:
'It turns out that we exaggerate the risks of events that are beyond our control, that cause many deaths at once or that kill in spectacular ways — crazy gunmen, terrorists, plane crashes, nuclear radiation, …
pronald | January 7, 2013So just how evil are GMOs anyway? A noted opponent apologizes - latimes.com.
pronald | November 18, 2012Tomorrows Table: What does GMO really mean?
For years, journalists, television producers and newspaper reporters that write about genetically engineered crops, have used the term “GMO” (genetically modified organism) to describe these new crop varieties. The marketing industry has taken to writing “GMO-free” on their products, as a way to increase sales to consumers fearful of the genetic engineering process.The problem is that the term GMO is misused and misunderstood.Take, for example, a recent story on Voice of America about a newly developed rice variety that is tolerant of flooding.…
pronald | September 24, 2012The ‘Frankenfoods’ debate is coming to your dinner table. Just last month, a mini-war developed in Europe, when the European Union’s chief scientist, renowned biologist Anne Glover, said that foods made through genetic engineering, such as soy beans—about 80 percent of US grown soybeans have been genetically engineered —are as safe as organic or conventional foods.
It’s a wholly uncontroversial comment—at least among scientists. But it set off the usual scare mongering from Friends of the Earth, and other like-minded advocacy groups that finds all genetically engineered (GE) foods and crops…
pronald | September 20, 2012Recently, a number of very informative article about global food security, genetically engineered crops and the CA labeling initiative have been published. Here I provide links to a few:
Food Crises and Technological Phobia « Biofortified.
GMO Crops: To Label Or Not To Label http://j.mp/S3ie0i
Scientific and Academic Community Responds to CA initiative on#GMO Labeling http://www.noprop37.com/press/scientific-and-academic-community-responds-to-qualification-of-ballot-measure-mandating-labeling-of-genetically-engineered-foods/ …
Stop worrying; start growing - Fagström &al (2012) - EMBO…
pronald | June 20, 2012Journalist Kevin Kloor discusses the spread of disinformation about GMOs The latest, most egregious example is a report with an Orwellian title, “GMO Myths and Truths”
via Collide-a-scape » Blog Archive » Collide-a-scape >> Look Beyond the Scientific Veneer of a GMO Report.
He makes a plea to influential and well-respected scholars like Marion Nestle: Dont be fooled by a scientific veneer.
pronald | June 17, 2012F. Cunningham gave a great talk today at the ASM 2012 meeting on the discovery of provitamin A synthesis, Vitamin A deficiency and the creation of Golden Rice. Read my twitter stream here.
pronald | June 13, 2012Over the past 16 years, vast plantings of transgenic crops producing insecticidal proteins from the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) have helped to control several major insect pests and reduce the need for insecticide sprays. Today, a report in Nature shows that planting of BT crops is also associated with an increase of ladybirds, lacewings and spiders, which are natural enemies of certain pests that harm the crop.
On the basis of data collected from 1990 to 2010 at 36 sites in six provinces of northern China, the authors show a marked increase in abundance in these three arthropods…
pronald | May 31, 2012
MT The debate on genetically engineered crops (the so-called "GMOs") has begun to grow up. Anti-GMO protests are fizzling.
Why?
Some consumers are embracing an emerging "geek consciousness" – a science-friendly approach that rejects unfounded attacks on basic and applied science and that emphasize knowledge-based agriculture instead of faith-based agriculture.
Also, genetic modification is no longer new. GM crops have been grown commercially around the world for more than a decade, and have been eaten by millions with no harm to human health or the environment. Scary health effects that…
pronald | May 30, 2012Here is a link to a an interesting new book by Julia Gordon. She just graduated from Washington University in St Louis as a graphic design major, and for her senior thesis she designed an informational book, using the chapter "Green Genes" from Stewart Brand's book "Whole Earth Discipline". For this project she used his text as the body for the book, and created additional images, graphics, maps, captions and footnotes to accompany the text.
When given the assignment to design an informational book for her thesis, she was excited to base it on Green Genes because she found it "eye opening,…
pronald | May 30, 2012Listen to an informative interview on NPR with University of California, Berkeley geneticist Peggy Lemaux regarding the California initiative on Food labeling.
"If youre looking to know whats in your food, well theres a lot of stuff in your food, and theres already a lot of stuff on the label," says Lemeaux. "And a lot of people already dont read the label."
For more information, check out her science-based website here.
It is a great site, which answers just about any question concerning genetically engineered crops.
pronald | May 29, 2012Just read some of the comments on Amy Harmon's #GMO labeling story from Friday's NYT. Guess people care about this topic.
Here are some excerpts:
"Unless you are foraging, eating wild-berries, game, etc... then you are consuming GMO food. There is no logical definition of #GMO food"
"Conservatives deny data on global warming; Liberals deny data on #GMO safety Each side discards reason when it doesn't suit their politics"
"The FDA should require stringent testing of GMO products and label only those found to be harmful"
"You think you have pesticides being applied now? Wait until the demise of…
pronald | April 26, 2012A paper in this week's issue of Nature and a commentary on Revkin's DotEarth blog reinforces the argument that a hybrid path in agriculture -- incorporating both conventional and organic production practices -- gives the best chance of feeding some 9 billion people by midcentury in an ecologically-based manner.
The thoughtful and comprehensive study compares yields in organic and conventional systems and addresses the criticisms of an earlier study by Badgley et al (for problems with the earlier study, see the supplementary discussion in Seufert et al).
The organic agriculture movement has…
pronald | November 1, 2011Consumers are asking us many questions about biotech seeds and traits. They want to know why some farmers may choose to use them and what the long-term implications are not only for our health but also for the farming/ranching industry.
All of the challenges and issues facing the agriculture industry are very complex and multifaceted. The issue of using biotech seeds and traits is no different. U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance (USFRA) has encouraged farmers and ranchers to share their experiences and provide some insight into why they choose - or choose not - to use biotech seeds.
They…