Tag: Environment
GMOs on the Huffington Post
I know what you are thinking, but prepare to be surprised. While The Huffington Post has been a joke when it comes to science content on their blogs, there has been some good stuff coming out of their science news section. Our own Kevin Folta has been interviewed for the “Talk Nerdy to Me” series…
Kareiva: Scientist, Conservationist, & Pragmatist.
Here is some interesting weekend reading for you. Peter Kareiva, chief scientist for the Nature Conservancy, wrote an essay questioning the strategies of environmentalists and conservationists. He argued that their movement is failing – both in its goal to protect ecosystems and helping people to recognize their dependence on those ecosystems. He is also challenging…
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Planting for a Greener Yield
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…
Hello From The World of Entomology!
My name is Joe and I’m going to be an occasional guest blogger here at Biofortified. The area I write about is going to be a bit different than most of the other writers on this website. Instead of writing about genetically modified plants, I’m going to spend a large portion of my time writing…
Gordon Conway on Orgenics
Mark Henderson at the Times Online has just published an article about Genetic Engineering and Organic Agriculture. Organic farmers must embrace GM crops if we are to feed the world, says scientist. The scientist is non other than Agricultural Ecologist Sir Gordon Conway, and he argues that Organic Ag should be open to GE crops,…
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…
Terminator 2: My Mission is to Protect You
In discussions about GE crops, one of the contentious topics that often comes up is the use of what has been effectively dubbed “Terminator” technology. These are crops that are engineered to produce sterile seeds that cannot be regrown. The use of this technology to force farmers to repurchase their seeds every year is often…