Guest Post « Biofortified

Brazilian virus-resistant beans

by Lucia de Souza on 18 October 2011

A homemade, high potential benefit-driven development from the public sector

Beans are an important food item, mostly in the developing world. Unfortunately, the golden mosaic virus infection is a serious constraint causing severe grain losses in Brazil and South America. The National Technical Commission on Biosafety (CTNBio) approved the genetically modified golden mosaic virus-resistant beans developed by the Brazilian public Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa) linked to the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply. This work is an example of a public-sector effort to develop useful traits, such as resistance to a devastating disease, in an “orphan crop” cultivated by poor farmers throughout Latin America. It is a milestone as it is the first fully “publicly funded homemade” recombinant biotechnology crop improvement strategy that has reached this stage in a developing country.

Where Have All The Flowers Gone?

by Steve Savage on 11 July 2011

Today, to be patriotic, for the 4th of July I bought my wife some red, white and blue carnations. I got them at Franco’s Flowers on Leucadia Boulevard just off the I5. If you live in North County, this is definitely the place to get flowers. I’m no professional flower arranger, but I think they came out nicely.

I asked the clerk who was trimming and wrapping the flowers where they came from, and he said, “Columbia.” At least that felt more patriotic than purchasing them from Hugo Chavez’ Venezuela.

GMO Food Is Actually Already Labeled If You Know A Few Rules

by Steve Savage on 2 July 2011

Back in 1995, I was party to some discussions about whether about-to-be-released GMO crops should be labeled at the consumer level. It was clear that a failure to do so would look to some like a conspiracy, but we also realized that it would be far too expensive to track the great rivers of grain well enough to be able to label everything accurately. Practicality won the day and GMO foods were never labeled. 15 years later this decision is still being needlessly debated.

Why You Can’t Really Track All Grain

It does not normally make sense for a farmer to have his/her own harvesting equipment. There are “custom, contract harvesters” who move from South to North during the harvest season. There are always some grains left in the harvester as it moves from field to field. The grain is then hauled to local “elevators” which are used to store grain. They only have a few silos which end up containing grain from dozens to hundreds of fields. Segregating the GMO portion of the crop is not possible at this stage. To ask this system to segregate and track GMO is absurd. It is much more practical to “identity preserve” the small amount of non-GMO crop. That also usually involves paying a price premium.

Small Scale Studies in the Real World

by pdiff on 12 April 2011

In a recent discussion on Biofortified, a conversation regarding the ability of small scale research plots to represent real world results was raised. For reasons of experimental control, practicality, and economy, the majority of agricultural research is carried out at smaller scales, i.e. through growth chambers, greenhouses, and small field plots. Almost uniformly, the results of such studies are extrapolated to larger “field” level scales for reporting purposes. While this translation may seem like a straight forward conversion, it can have considerable affects on the interpretation and inference made from the research. Specifically, it is important to understand how error rates at the small scale carry over and affect the larger scale results.

Planting for a Greener Yield

by Guest Posts on 3 March 2010

By Brandon Hunnicutt

Over the last 15 years, agriculture has been changing technologically at an amazing pace. It is something that is truly fun to look back at and realize where we have come. As a producer of corn, soybeans, wheat, seed corn, and popcorn over many of those years it has truly changed what we are able to do and what we will be able to do in the future.

Equipment technology has created a way for us to be able to be better stewards of our ground and resources. Biotechnology has allowed us to push the food, feed, and fuel production to levels that only a few short years ago, many people would not have thought possible. Plus, we are utilizing fertilizer at a better rate.

@vanishingbees One of our editors is a beekeeper, @kjhvm, and will bee glad to address it! about 17 hours ago in reply to vanishingbees
Very strange that @vanishingbees is suggesting things that own interview indicated aren't true. What is motivation for that? #GMO #bee about 17 hours ago
@RodaleInstitute posts fearful screed on Beeologics buyout by Monsanto. http://t.co/8j2p6mGY by @vanishingbees http://t.co/YIuHnYta #GMO about 17 hours ago in reply to RodaleInstitute
RT @agbiotech: In Bill Gates' 30 min livestream on @HuffPostImpact, he answers questions on issues discussed in his annual letter http:/ ... about 20 hours ago
RT @Vegan_Chicago: Great comments by @geneticmaize @skepticalvegan @kevinfolta and EwanR on #GMO labeling. Where's @marionnestle ? about 20 hours ago

@franknfoode

Brazilian virus-resistant beans

A homemade, high potential benefit-driven development from the public sector

Where Have All The Flowers Gone?

GMO Food Is Actually Already Labeled If You Know A Few Rules

Why You Can’t Really Track All Grain

Small Scale Studies in the Real World

Planting for a Greener Yield

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