When I was in grad school, there was a lab in our department that studied intestinal parasitic roundworms. Although this wasn’t related to what I was doing in any way—everyone who has been to grad school will know that you attend the department seminars for the donuts and/or pizza no matter what the topic is. I have to say, though, that the seminars from this lab made the donuts and pizza a little less appealing.
 One of the students of the lab defended his thesis work during this time frame. He was a terrific speaker who made us understand the medical and economic burdens of these parasites on the impoverished communities he studied. Somehow he managed to make the story of sample collection amusing…. And the details of the discovery of his own infection (after a very hot curry meal) made that defense one of the most memorable during my career in science (Figure 1, right. Speaker and his infectious agent). But I still remember the scientific point: these infections have real impacts on the humans and the agricultural animals that live in close proximity to them in the developing world. And that there appear to have been separate and distinct infections in humans and in pigs in the studies they performed.
Until recently I hadn’t thought much about the roundworms. But this week when this paper came across my desk, I was glad to see that there was a potential breakthrough in the treatments for roundworms that could improve the health of millions of children. And how might this be accomplished? Using the Bt protein.
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by Karl Haro von Mogel on 11 February 2010 I just received word* that a special webcast will be happening tomorrow, Friday the 12th, called Now Serving 9 Billion: Global Dialogue on Meeting Food Needs for the Next Generation. The webcast will occur from 10 am-12 pm U.S. Eastern Standard Time (-5 GMT), which will be 9-11 am in the U.S. Central time zone where I am. Here are the panelists that will be appearing in the webcast:
- Dr. Nina V. Fedoroff; Science and Technology Advisor to the Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and to the Administrator of USAID Rajiv Shah. Author of “Mendel In The Kitchen” Bio here.
- Dr. Robert Paarlberg, Wellesley College. He is the Betty Freyhof Johnson Class of 1944 Professor of Political Science at Wellesley College and Associate at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University. Author of: Starved for Science: How Biotechnology is Being Kept Out Of Africa. Bio here.
- Dr. Calestous Juma, Harvard Kennedy School of Government. Professor of the Practice of International Development. Director, Science, Technology, Globalization Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. Bio here.
- Mark Cantley, former Advisory in the Directorate for Biotechnology, Agriculture and Food, of the Directorate-General for Research of the European Commission, and formerly head of the OECD’s Biotechnology Unit. Bio here.
- Frank Sesno, moderator, Director of the School of Media and Public Affairs at The George Washington University, Emmy-award winning journalist, and host and creator of Planet Forward, a ground-breaking web-to-television show seen on PBS. Bio here.
- Dr. Gale Buchanan, CAST report lead author; College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, The University of Georgia, Tifton Campus; former USDA Under-Secretary for Research, Education and Economics. Bio here.
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by Karl Haro von Mogel on 17 April 2009 In the genetic engineering discussion, within the opposition there emerges a general dislike for “technology.” Usually, when people say technology they mean things that are made of metal, plastic, uses electricity, has protruding hypodermic needles, and is usually shiny. The opposite of things that are natural or organic, technology is entirely human-derived and artificial-looking.
Of course, what this obscures is what a technology really is, and that is applied knowledge. According to Wikipedia,
Technology is a broad concept that deals with an animal species’ usage and knowledge of tools and crafts, and how it affects an animal species’ ability to control and adapt to its environment.
Certainly GE crops are a form of technology. But some other things in agriculture that count as technologies include: Organic growing methods, biologically-derived pesticides, manure, and using animals to plow fields. Heck, the horse-drawn plow itself was a technological breakthrough for its time!
Our lives are interwoven with technology – and I’m not just talking about people who can’t go anywhere without their iPods. People are born, live, eat, drink, breathe, and cheat death for years because of technology. Without it, there would be very few people on this planet. And although many, including myself, like to take vacations away from most of our technology to relax, very few want to actually be stranded in the wilderness for the rest of their lives without it.
And if we are to feed the growing number of people on this planet, we are going to need all manner of technologies.
Why then, do people oppose specific new technologies, is it a fear of how it may change their lives (or that it might end their lives)?
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by Anastasia on 28 February 2008 Biopharma is such a strange word. To me it sounds sort of sci-fi, evoking images from the 1950s of a future where everything will be high-tech but beautiful and simple at the same time. Of course, not everyone has such positive thoughts about this potentially dangerous yet potentially lifesaving application of technology.
“Scientists Worry Over GM Drug Crops“, posted on Environmental Graffiti, briefly covers the news that crops engineered to express pharmaceutical proteins will be field tested this growing season, concentrating on the Union of Concerned Scientists’ reaction. Apparently UCS is taking their typical anti-tech stance, asking the USDA to require all such crops to be grown in greenhouses or underground. I was not able to find any record of UCS’s recent comments.
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by Anastasia on 28 January 2008 What farming is today, what it should be, and what people think it should be are very different things. Pro-organic, pro-biointensive mini- and maxi-activists have a distinct idea of what they think farming should be, but don’t quite understand all of the ramifications. For the most part, I heartily agree with them, but I do understand (at least some of) the ramifications for our society and our food supply. The industrial revolution brought people
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