Gene Modification
More GE Crops, More Pesticides
Published November 20, 2009 @ 06:00AM PT
A new report by Charles Benbrook, chief scientist at the Organic Center, says that genetically engineered crops are forcing use of pesticides rapidly upwards.
The report, titled "Impacts of Genetically Engineered Crops on Pesticide Use: The First Thirteen Years" and principally informed by data from the USDA, finds that GE crops have caused an increase in the use of herbicide in the US of 383 million pounds over the 13 years GE crops have been used commercially.
But what about all that talk of GE corn and cotton driving the use of insecticides to celebrated lows? According to the report, the emergence of herbicide-resistant weeds is responsible for the dramatic herbicide upswing, a phenomenon that will not be news to farmers.
"Weed control is now widely acknowledged as a serious management problem within GE cropping systems," the report's preface states. "But skyrocketing herbicide use is news to the public at large, which still harbors the illusion, fed by misleading industry claims and advertising, that biotechnology crops are reducing pesticide use."
My $80 Thanksgiving Turkey
Published November 13, 2009 @ 11:08AM PT
The argument can be made that paying $80 for a turkey this Thanksgiving is just a typical example of elitism in the sustainable food movement. And that might be somewhat true.
However, I say that it is an example of paying for what's important to you, and for me, that's knowing not only who raised the bird on my table but how it was raised as well.
This Thanksgiving, I'll be serving a 10-12 pound heritage breed turkey from EcoFriendly Foods, a cooperative that sources sustainably produced meat from small farms throughout the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia; and here's why.
Somewhere around 99% of the turkeys consumed in America every year are the genetically engineered "Broadbreasted White" variety. These turkeys, the ones you find in the grocery store, are raised in (I omit "on" for a reason) factory farms, and have been manipulated to the point that they cannot even stand on their own most of time.
Two GMO Questions, One Big Muddle
Published November 13, 2009 @ 06:00AM PT
We've been discussing genetically modified foods like it's going out of style here on change.org's sustainable food blog.
There is, indeed, much to discuss; there are many threads to the conversation, which, when not teased apart, can lead to a muddled confusion about what we are all actually discussing.
Critics of GM foods tend to focus on two important concerns: the uncertain safety of the crops and the intellectual property (IP) rights of the companies creating them. So these are the big questions: (1) are GM foods safe? And (2) will companies maintain a financial stranglehold over the users and would-be researchers of GM seeds?
Winners of Ashoka's 'GMO Risk or Rescue?' Competition Announced
Published November 10, 2009 @ 06:00AM PT
The Ashoka Changemakers Website, which describes itself as a "community of action where we all collaborate on solutions," runs a range of specific competitions on a wide variety of subject matter. Potential changemakers enter their solutions to the issue at hand, and readers vote on which twenty entries deserve accolades.
A contest of interest to us here, titled "GMO Risk or Rescue? Helping Consumers Decide," just announced its winners after over 14,000 readers helped decide on the worthiest entries.
The grand prize goes to a blog called biofortified, for its entry titled "stronger plants, stronger science, and stronger communication!" A group blog addressing issues of genetic engineering in agriculture and plant biology, Biofortified claims itself to be the most "dedicated effort to discuss genetic engineering on the web." The organizers aim to expand their blogger network to bring the conversation on genetic engineering to wider audiences. These savvy bloggers will receive a grant of $1,500 and a get to participate in a conversation with food journalist Michael Pollan.
The competition's two runners-up are Campaign for Healthier Eating in America and Non-GMO Project. The top three winners have all won an enhanced social media training session with Ashoka and will be mentioned in a one-page ad in the Stanford Social Innovation Review magazine. The 17 honorable mentions will receive a social media training session with Ashoka.
Surprise! Farmers Grow Hearty Crops to Survive War
Published November 07, 2009 @ 06:00AM PT
Subsistence farmers in African war zones keep themselves alive in dangerous circumstances by leaning on intuition and age-old farming logic that goes like this: when in tough conditions, reuse whatever field you've got, grow the hardiest plants and when fleeing, take the hardiest seeds with you. Doing this allows farmers to create the crops best adapted to their needs; a surprise stroke of agricultural genius that apparently leaves scientists reeling.
A new study reports the unexpected emergence of hybrid rice in West African countries like Gambia, Ghana, Senegal and Togo, whose African and Asian rice varieties (Oryza glaberrima Steud and Oryza sativa L.) have only previously been interbred in a lab and there produced sterile offspring, according to SciDevNet.
The authors of the study, which appears in this month's issue of PLoS ONE, report that these two species of rice are interbreeding in the fields in part because of disruptions caused by war.
Science Front and Center at USDA
Published November 02, 2009 @ 06:00AM PT
Change is in the air at the USDA; the agency has taken it upon itself, in the words of President Obama, "to restore science to its rightful place" with the creation of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), according to a USDA press release.
The new Institute, a product of the 2008 farm bill, replaces the Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service (CSREES), and is intended, in the words of Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, to "be the Department's extramural research enterprise."
While science should indeed be incorporated back into the fold in all aspects of life, its application to agriculture is a particularly hot-button tonic, as I discussed on Friday. For those concerned with the advancement of the use of genetically modified organisms, the formation of this new Institute should hold kernels of concern.
GM Food Fight
Published October 30, 2009 @ 06:00AM PT
In the debate over genetically modified food, one thing is clear: we can't agree. And not only do we disagree but we disagree passionately and intransigently. Statistics are hurled back and forth, each one seemingly contradicting the last, until everyone has pie in their face and no one knows what's fact and what's fallacy.
Change.org member Dawn Gifford noted the intensity of the debate in a recent comment: "this issue is more divisive than almost any other international issue, barring war."
So what's a thinking person to do? Many people I talk to feel a sense of unease with GM foods, but don’t have a clearly defined opinion and don’t know which information to trust.
