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Author Archives: GDS
Wilk on Diet Change and Nutritainment
Today’s guest blog is from Rick Wilk, a leading scholar of food, consumption, agriculture, and various other topics. His recent books on food include Home Cooking in the Global Village and Rice and Beans. Rick is Provost Professor of Anthropology … Continue reading
Posted in Food
3 Comments
Two Agricultural Donations
Since I do research on small farms for a living, I don’t normally find it a cause for celebration to be wrong about small farms. But I am toasting Caromont Farm’s kickstarter success and my complete wrongness. I described the … Continue reading
My First Charitable Donation to a For-Profit Business
I just made a charitable donation to a for-profit business. A cheese-maker, to be exact. This is not something one does every day, and not something I thought I ever would do. This calls for some rethinking about “profit” and … Continue reading
New Ag Antibiotic Rules: Toothless and Oblivious
Headline in the NY Times: U.S. Tightens Rules on Antibiotics Use for Livestock. The lede: Farmers and ranchers will for the first time need a prescription from a veterinarian before using antibiotics in farm animals, in hopes that more judicious … Continue reading
Posted in Agriculture, Industrial Agriculture
1 Comment
Nuking Gene Patents?
The Myriad case – with its embedded nuclear bomb that would abolish most gene patents in the US – has been languishing on the Supreme Court’s desk ever since last year. The Supremes hadn’t accepted the appeal, or rejected the … Continue reading
Posted in Biotechnology, Intellectual Property
2 Comments
Decide for Yourself
The dust has not settled after India’s decision not to approve its first genetically modified food crop. In fact it has just been kicked up again today, with the prime minister accusing foreign NGO’s of meddling and activists responding that … Continue reading
Posted in Agriculture, Biotechnology, Food, India
1 Comment
Bt Cotton, Remarkable Success, and Four Ugly Facts
Of all the crops and countries in GMO controversies today, few are as important than Bt cotton in India. GMO debates keep going back to small farmers and developing countries, and India has by far the most small farmers planting … Continue reading
Posted in Agriculture, Biotechnology, India
60 Comments
A Biotech Page-Turner
If you’re floundering around looking for a topic for your masters thesis in literature, allow me to submit for your consideration corporate media for children on GMO’s, a fascinating and understudied emerging genre. I was first introduced to this genre … Continue reading
Posted in Biotechnology, India
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New GM Grass: Unregulated and Unstudiable
The NY Times recently published “Engineering Food for All,” a gushing op-ed by professional GMO proponent Nina Fedoroff that bemoaned the increasingly burdensome regulatory oversight of GM crops. She went so far as to link world hunger to regulation of … Continue reading
Posted in Agriculture, Biotechnology, Intellectual Property
16 Comments
Putting the Germ into Germany
A truly frightening outbreak of E. coli food poisoning appeared in Germany in May. Within a month it had infected more than 2,400 people in 13 countries across Europe, killing 23. The toxic strain of E. coli is being called O104:H4 … Continue reading
Posted in Agriculture, Biotechnology, Food, Industrial Agriculture
Tagged agriculture, biotechnology, factory farming, food safety, genetically modified, organic, toxicology
1 Comment
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