The USDA announced recently that Roundup Ready® alfalfa is cleared to be planted anywhere in the US without restrictions. In contrast to previous GE crop approvals, this time the USDA listed three potential options, the first being no approval at all, the second, unrestricted approval, and the third, approval with certain geographic restrictions. (For some discussion on this, see Anastasia’s post on alfalfa and mine on our joint comment to the USDA.) So already, the political process with GE crop deregulation is getting more interesting, but one fascinating aspect of all this is the new and surprising level of infighting amongst opponents of genetic engineering, particularly in the Organic agriculture sector. All it took was proposing something between a blanket Yes or No – something that recognizes that all farmers have a reasonable right to grow crops as they see fit – and that the goal should be coexistence amongst all segments of agriculture.
The Agriculture Department is dutifully drafting a comprehensive “coexistence policy” that supposedly will diffuse tensions between conventional (chemical but non-GMO), biotech, and organic farmers. Earlier this week industry and Administration officials met in Washington, D.C. to talk about coexistence. Even though the Organic Consumers Association tried to get into the meeting, we were told we weren’t welcome. The powers that be claim that the OCA doesn’t meet their criteria of being “stakeholders.” The unifying theme in these closed-door meetings is apparently that Monsanto and the other biotech companies will set aside a “compensation” fund to reimburse organic farmers whose crops or fields get contaminated. That way we’ll all be happy. Monsanto, Bayer, Syngenta, Dow, and Dupont will continue planting their hazardous crops and force-feeding animals and consumers with GMOs. Organic farmers and companies willing to cooperate will get a little compensation or “hush money.” But of course our response to Monsanto and the USDA’s plan, as you might have guessed, is hell no!
Did you hear the news this week about the new hottest pepper in the world* – the Infinity pepper? Want to try your hand at breeding something better? Well just in time, I have the next video in my pollination methods series of videos available for you to watch: Yes, peppers. The pepper genus, Capsicum is complex and although there may be different species, you can still make crosses between them if you know which crosses to make. The video explains it all. Enjoy!
*Shortly after I recorded audio for this video, it was announced that the Naga Jolokia (or Naga Morich) pepper which I had described as the hottest pepper in the world at 1 million Scoville units, was apparently unseated by another pepper called the Naga Viper.
Taking a page from the modern creationist movements that seek to weaken high school education in evolutionary biology, a French group is looking to do the same to biology classes – but now it’s genetic engineering that is the target. Nature News reports in Transgenic bacterium sparks row in French schools, that CRIIGEN, led by Gilles-Eric Seralini, is advocating that useful, direct education in fundamentals of genetic transformation should be kept from high school students.
I guess it was only a matter of time. The particular brand of extreme belief about the risks of genetic engineering espoused by Seralini, who is the president of the scientific board of The Committee for Research & Independent Information on Genetic Engineering (CRIIGEN), has now spilled over into the inevitable conclusion that anything and everything GMO-like should be in advanced low-air-pressure biosafety labs only. Because simple things done a million times over such as adding a plasmid to a tube of harmless bacteria to demonstrate how basic genetic engineering works is knowledge that French high school students should not have access to. Why? Because doing a safe, controlled experiment “trivializes” a touchy subject.
Yesterday, the comment period for the Genetically Engineered Glyphosate-Tolerant Alfalfa Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) ended. Next to sugar beets, perhaps no other GE crop has received the kind of regulatory attention that this one has. Consequently, Anastasia and I decided to submit a joint comment to the USDA with Biofortified.org’s name attached to it. There has been much discussion as of late on this blog, spearheaded by Anastasia, about the issue of coexistence. While hyperbole about “kissing your organics goodbye” and meaningless distinctions such as “the first GE perennial field crop” (first perennial is papaya) are abound, some interesting things are actually going on.
In December, the USDA held a meeting with several stakeholders, and the transcript of this meeting can be found here. There are several ideas being floated around, and some familiar names. I’ll have more to say on this meeting later. But one statement struck a chord, and that was that there wasn’t enough time for discussion between the meeting and the end of the Alfalfa comment period. Of course, let’s ignore the fact that GE crops have been grown for 14 years, and that Alfalfa was first deregulated years ago. There has been plenty of time for discussion, but I guess no one has been trying to make this discussion happen in a productive manner until now. Kudos to the USDA for getting things going, though it be in the 11th hour for this particular transgenic crop.
Hi everyone, I hope you are keeping warm and rested this holiday season. Internet is real spotty where I am in L.A., otherwise I would be putting up a bunch of posts about the Vatican, Wikileaks, and more. But I have a moment in my favorite coffee shop in Culver City to share a little song I put together. As you are probably aware, I’ve been chatting and debating with some folks over at Grist lately, and the conversations have been both revealing and instructive, while also being up close and personal. It was amazing to see as I pointed out that both Tom Philpott and Tom Laskawy were wrong on basic facts and also wrong on interpretations, that they have not once responded to my comments. Doug Gurian-Sherman laid down a bombshell that he doesn’t care if anyone thinks his stuff is peer-reviewed or not, and an anti-GE campaigner thanked me for being the first scientist to explain something to her (brownie points that didn’t last very long, apparently). And amidst a string of personal attacks, a surprise defender swooped in! There’s not enough time for me to find each comment, but the verses here are all based on real comments, you can search my Grist comment account to find them if you like.
And this holiday season, Grist itself sent me half a dozen requests for money as a registered user (besides banner ads when visiting the site), saying that a donation would be a gift that keeps on giving. Truly Grist has been such a gift, but not in the way that they intended. I thought about the important things I observed, and put them all to a familiar tune. Sing along with me as you read The 12 Posts of Gristmas!
On the first post of Gristmas the comments gave to me,
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Organic Infighting over GE Alfalfa
As soon as the topic of coexistence came up. Ronnie Cummins of the Organic Consumers Association fired off a shot, with USDA Recommends “Coexistence” with Monsanto? We say Hell No!