Hi everyone, Frank N. Foode™ here, and I think 2015 is going to be a good year! The plushies from our Kickstarter have finally made it to the U.S., updates are coming to GENERA, and an invigorating discussion about the future of Biology Fortified following a month of cyber attacks has inspired us to do more. We’ve got several projects in the works, and a campaign we’re preparing to embark on and we want to make it easier for everyone to stay informed and to help spread the word. Please consider joining our mailing list!
What do you get by joining the Biology Fortified mailing list? Periodic updates and announcements about our projects, videos, important news and events, and ways that you can get involved. We’re planning on more volunteer opportunities, art projects, contests, and even a citizen science experiment (the seeds for this just arrived today)! Get informed about what is coming up next. Plus we’ll toss in a few tidbits that you don’t get on the blog just for our mailing list subscribers.
We also know what it is like to have a cluttered inbox – and we’re going to send out our newsletters only when we really need to – usually only 1-2 per month, but there may be more in the future as we grow. If there are certain things that you really want to hear about but not so much the rest – just check the boxes below for the news you care about. You can change these settings anytime.
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2014 Frankenfood Carving and Costume Contest
Hello everyone! Frank N. Foode™ here to make an important announcement. October 31st – celebrated both as Halloween and the birthdate of this fine blog (what a coincidence?) is just around the corner. You know what that means? Oh yes, it is time for our annual Frankenfood Carving and Costume Contest!
In previous years, you’ve all stepped up and carved yourselves some gnarly pumpkins, assorted squash, and hacked up many other bounties from the harvest. You’ve also donned scary plant-based costumes. Well it’s time to grab the knives and sewing needles for another great contest with some awesome prizes!
Here are the rules:
- This contest is open to everyone – you need not have ever commented on the blog before the day you enter in the contest.
- You’ve seen the scary pictures. Needles in tomatoes, and corn with sharp jaws to bite off your fingers. This is what some people imagine GMOs are like. You and I know better, but that doesn’t mean we can’t have a little fun! Take a pumpkin, squash, corn, celery, you-name-it, and carve it up into the scariest, most OMG-worthy GMO you can think of. Stitch different plants together, make a real Frankenfood!
- OR – make yourself a costume worthy of being seen in one of those GMO protests – or a counter-protest – dressed as a plant or something related to it! It’s your choice – and either one gets you into the contest.
- Upload a photo of your mad creation to the forum. Or upload it to our Facebook Page.
- To give you time to upload a picture from Halloween, the contest is open until November 2nd, at midnight Pacific time in the US.
- The Biofortified Blog’s Editors will decide on a winner and announce it within the next week.
Pick some news during the past year and make fun of it. The scarier, the funnier, the more clever – the better!
Prizes
What is a contest without prizes? For our winners, you get your choice of a Frank N. Foode™ or Lanakila Papaya™ plushie sent to you, and our first place winners will get their choice of one of the books on our prize page as well. Now if we get a lot of entries, we’re going to throw in some more prizes just to make it interesting!
So go! Run out to the field and find a worthy cucurbit, grab your surgical tools (be safe!), and make us some monsters! Can you top last year’s winner?
Vote on our next Kickstarter plush!
Hi everyone! Frank N. Foode™ here. Wow, our Kickstarter has been going great, and I’m so happy to see everyone chipping in to bring me to life! We just reached our T-shirt Stretch Goal – so now anyone can get a T-shirt saying you were a part of this! (You can even get just the T-shirt by itself!) Ok, enough talkin’ about that stuff – it’s time to talk about bringing one of my friends to life. If we can raise our Kickstarter pledges to $16,000 we will make a second plush, and we want you to help us decide. I’m going to tell you a little about each of their stories, and you can vote on which is the first story we can tell in plush form.
Hawai’ian Papaya
Ah, if you have heard any story about a genetically engineered crop, it should be about the papayas in Hawai’i! They were about to be wiped out by a viral disease, and there was no way that it could be stopped, except when Dr. Dennis Gonsalves and his team at Cornell University genetically engineered a papaya that was resistant to the disease. They actually used part of the virus itself to block the virus from attacking the cells of the papaya. In 1998, after papaya farms were falling apart and some about to go under, the first seeds of these new trees were approved and released to farmers. Today, more than 8 out of 10 papayas grown in Hawai’i are genetically engineered.
It has been more than 15 years since this happened, but even in Hawai’i some people don’t quite know the story. In the public debates going on lately, some even try to say that it didn’t happen that way. How can a humble papaya in the grocery store tell people about the backstory of science, precaution, and determination that made it possible for the papaya to be there? We need the help of an ambassador for the story of the Hawai’ian papaya! Continue reading “Vote on our next Kickstarter plush!”
Poll: Tell us how you’ve been waiting!
Hi everyone, Frank N. Foode™ here. Our Kickstarter is about to launch, with only about 12 hours to go. Soon you will have a chance to get your own copy of, well, me to have for your very own. Some of you have been waiting for this for a long time. Others have only just heard the news. Before our campaign launches, we can still have a little fun. How about taking this poll?
| How are you spending your time waiting for the Frank N. Foode Kickstarter to begin? | |
| Science! | |
| Counting my money | |
| Frantically emailing Kickstarter to put a stop to this | |
| Keep Calm and Farm On | |
| Writing a blog post to help promote it! | |
| WHAT THEY HELL GIMME A FRANK N. FOODE™ PLUSHY ALREADY JEBUS KRYST WAHT DO I HVAE 2 DO?!?!! | |
| Muh hah hah hah hah! | |
| Meh. | |
Tell us how you’ve been spending your time, and what have you been hoping to do with a Frank N. Foode™ plush once you’ve gotten one? Where would you take me? What people or plants would I get to meet? Let us know in the comments!
Happy Thanksgiving!
Enjoy your food tonight, thank some farmers and scientists. Forget about the politics for a little while.
Winner omits the Control!
Happy November, everyone, Frank N. Foode™ here, and I’ve got the results of the 2013 Frankenfood Carving and Costume Contest. This year, we had some very creative, geeky, politicky and foodie entries, and it was a difficult decision. But our judges have indeed declared the winners, and they will be showered with prizes and fame! Let’s see what creativity our readers have up the sleeves of their lab coats! Continue reading “Winner omits the Control!”
2013 Frankenfood Carving Contest
Greetings, plants and people! This is Frank N. Foode™ with a special announcement. Leaves are turning colors and falling from the trees. The weather is changing, and demonstrations are happening both near and far with people talking about genetically engineered foods as if they were scary monsters out to get them. Why does this always seem to happen around Halloween? Well we have our own way of sending these images off with a seasonal celebration of scary imagery: It is time for our 4th annual Frankenfood Carving and Costume Contest! Get that agrobacteria ready – it’s time to make some monsters and win fabulous prizes and have fun at the same time!
Here are the rules: Continue reading “2013 Frankenfood Carving Contest”
Happy 4th of July!
Hello everyone, Frank N. Foode™ here, wishing all you Americans a happy 4th of July! Me, I’m preparing to have some barbecued ribs, potato salad, watermelon, and – of course – sweet corn tonight. My Salvia friends and I are celebrating independence day with some sparklers! Check out my photos, and tell me which one is your favorite!
I’ve also been on an international trip lately. I went to Saskatoon, Canada, flew to Italy to attend a conference, and then came back to Alberta, Canada to celebrate Canada Day on July 1st! I have a few pictures from my journey already uploaded, but there are more coming and I’ll tell you more about that trip very soon.
So while you celebrate today, remember there are reasons for everyone around the world to come together and enjoy life, whether you are a plant, animal, or some transgenic combination thereof.
After I’ve seen everything in Canada, I’m making plans to go to Hawai’i and investigate what’s going on on those tropical isles.
Life is good, eh?
Nominate your Champion of Change!
Hi everybody, Frank N. Foode™ here, with a special request. We came upon a program that you might be interested in. It’s the White House Office of Science & Technology Open Science Champions of Change – and I would like to humbly ask that you consider nominating us for it! Continue reading “Nominate your Champion of Change!”
Contest winner is ghoulish!
Howdy everyone, Frank N. Foode™ here to announce the winner of this year’s Frankenfood Carving Contest!
It was a late-announced contest, but with the new forum and its image-upload features it was so much easier to enter, and we definitely got some entries this year. Photos of both costumes and carved produce rolled in, from human-sized sushi and an accompanying sushi chef, to a vampire pumpkin and a kiwan-o-lantern! I even got in on the action and carved my very own Schmeiser Apparition! It’s on the side opposite me from hurricane Sandy.
Everyone’s creativity was awesome, and we’re grateful for all the entries we received. But one entry rose above the rest, both with its original use of genetically engineered food, and its downright cuteness! So without any further ado, I give you the winner of our 7th Community Contest Continue reading “Contest winner is ghoulish!”
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