Resources « Biofortified

Superior searching

by Anastasia on 16 May 2011

Ever try to find some fact-based information about agriculture, gardening, nutrition… but had a hard time getting past all the junk sites? Extension may be the key to getting the information you need.

eXtension collects fact-based information from subject matter experts in extension offices at from 74 land-grant institutions in the US so it can be easily accessed by anyone 24/7/365. This non-profit is overseen by representatives of land grant institutions chosen by each of 7 regions in the US (details on mission and oversight can be found at the eXtension Foundation website).

If you go to the website, it should auto-detect your location so you can find information from your closest extension office. You can also choose to select a different institution by zip code or state or just browse the list of institutions. Another option is to view subjects by resource areas aka Communities of Practice.

Page of images for Media

by Karl Haro von Mogel on 14 December 2010

Anastasia and I just got out of a Skype interview with John for Truffle Media, and the question came up, how to visualize a genetically engineered food? As I’m sure you all know when you read articles about genetic engineering, you get all kinds of crazy pictures from this:

To this:

When the scientific truth is more like this:

POPcorn

by Anastasia on 10 November 2010

The maize genetics community needs your help! POPcorn a special resource being developed with the goal of putting all maize-related information in one easy-to-use place. To help make POPcorn the best possible resource, they need feedback on ease of use.

Not a maize geneticist or breeder? The resource might still be of use to you if you study another crop or if you are just interested in learning more about a particular plant gene and what it does.

Any feedback that you can provide would be a big help to the POPcorn team. POPcorn is funded by NSF.

Introducing GENERA

by Karl Haro von Mogel on 2 November 2010

Some of you may have noticed a little restructuring on Biofortified lately, others may have gone browsing around and found an interesting unexplained page, or might have recalled discussions about a new and fantastic database being planned for Biofortified and what we were thinking about calling it. Well now the wait is over and all will be explained. I am pleased to introduce regulars and newcomers to the GENetic Engineering Risk Atlas, aka GENERA.

This is intended to be an atlas of any and all peer-reviewed research related to the relative risks of plant genetic engineering in the context of plant breeding. David Tribe has maintained a list of 300 papers related to this topic on GMO Pundit, and earlier this year we decided that all this information needed to be more visible and accessible to everyone. After searching deep within the bowels of WordPress plugins and php code, I figured out how to use the WordPress platform to host and manage a separate set of custom pages that will store and organize details about each study in a way that people can easily browse and search to find what they want.

The history of patenting life

by Anastasia on 21 September 2010

A major philosophical issue that many people have with biotechnology is patents on genes or whole organisms. It seems obvious that a plant, animal, or even bacterium is very different than a new piece of exercise equipment or anything else that might get patented. Should a breeder or geneticist be allowed to profit from his or her work? When thinking about complex subjects like this, it can help to get a little perspective by