Merry Frankmas!
Franky the Snowmaize was a jolly happy soul, With a corncob nose and icicle hair And two eyes made out of snow. Franky the Snowmaize is a fairy tale, they say, He was made to grow and the farmers Know how he came to life one day.
Month: December 2009
Africa at Crossroads
This was a pleasant surprise in my news feed. Israel Deladem Agorsor, in the department of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology at the University of Cape Coast in Ghana just published a column on GE crops and the future of African Agriculture. The debates on Genetically modified organisms at crossroads: Which way for Africa? Africa is…
Framing agriculture
Abut 2 weeks ago, I had a conversation on Twitter with Liz of Hyperlocavore about whether biotechnology could possibly fit into sustainable agriculture. I wrote a forum post about it on Biofortified but the ideas hadn’t quite come to full fruition. Well, I’ve had a little time to mull the ideas over and the motivation…
Comparing apples to apples
John Reganold, Regents Professor of Soil Science and Agroecology at Washington State University, recently presented a lecture at Iowa State. I have to admit, a professor of agroecology automatically raises my skeptical eyebrows, but I’d previously read Dr. Reganold’s 2001 letter in Nature: Sustainability of three apple production systems, which was about some pretty solid…
New NUE stuff
Matt Ridley, author of an upcoming book on science called The Rational Optimist, wrote an article for The Economist called The new NUE thing. NUE stands for Nitrogen Use Efficiency, a trait that can maintain yields with lower applications of costly fertilizer. Nitrogen Use Efficiency has got him, well, rationally optimistic about the environmental benefits…
Frank gets a check
I just got the prize check from Ashoka Changemakers today, and boy, this will buy a lot of compost! Seeing the $1,500 amount would have been enough, but they went the whole nine acres and sprung for one of those big novelty checks. This thing is enormous! So what are we going to do now…
Is space beer risky?
Sapporo is selling 250 6-packs of their ultra limited edition Space Beer through a lottery system for 10,000 yen each – but only to people who live in Japan. The proceeds will go to Okayama University for science education. The malting barley used in this beer is of the Haruna Nijo variety, developed by Sapporo….
Tomorrow’s Table on Iowa NPR
Pamela Ronald and Raoul Adamchak of Tomorrow’s Table are in Ames, Iowa for a series of events, including a big seminar and multiple discussion events and opportunities to interact with them. If you’re in Ames, check out this flyer for all the details. If you’re not in Ames, you can still learn about their big…