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Category Archives: Agriculture
The Most Deceptive Graph Ever Made?
A Famous Graph of the Triumph of Science Actually Shows Just What is Wrong with Our Agriculture It’s the most reproduced chart in anything ever written on agriculture. It shows a triumph of science: the meteoric rise in US corn … Continue reading
Good Luck with the Corn, RFK You A-hole
The point is that hundreds of businesses, laws, political allegiances, rural landscapes, and even the American palate have been shaped by this history for a century now. Our national integration of agriculture is the country’s biggest and most dysfunctional case of path dependence. Bummer that HFCS makes us fat and diabetic, but it’s part of a system that long ago metastasized throughout our economy. Poor RFK, that’s what he’s up against: its deep history. Continue reading
Posted in Agriculture, Food, Industrial Agriculture, Public Health
Tagged agriculture, farming, food, sustainability, sustainable-agriculture
2 Comments
Bt Cotton in Africa: What Happened in Burkina Faso?
As stories about GM crops in developing countries unfold, I continue to be struck by how very different each case is. Despite the desire for simple global narratives of success or failure, the crops differ, the transgenic traits differ, the … Continue reading
Posted in Africa, Agriculture, Biotechnology
Tagged agriculture, biotechnology, cotton, genetically modified, Monsanto
12 Comments
CRISPR and the Monsanto Problem (GMO, be some other name!)
‘Tis but thy name that is my enemy; Thou art thyself, though not a GMO. What’s GMO? it is nor hand, nor foot, Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part Belonging to a man. O, be some other name! … Continue reading
Posted in Agriculture, Biotechnology, CRISPR
18 Comments
Golden Rice: Bringing a Superfood Down to Earth
May 2016: The article “Disembedding grain: Golden Rice, the Green Revolution, and heirloom seeds in the Philippines,” by Dominic Glover and me, has been published in the journal Agriculture & Human Values and is available here. This blog post is … Continue reading
Posted in Agriculture, Biotechnology, Food, Philippines
40 Comments
Unload DDT
What a bloodbath on Wall St — XOM down 5%, UNH down 5%, DIS down 4%. But the biggest loser this week was DDT. DDT featured prominently in the recent blog highlighting the ongoing studies by Berkeley’s Barbara Cohn. Despite … Continue reading
Posted in Agriculture, Industrial Agriculture, Public Health
8 Comments
GM Foods: A Moment of Honesty
As the latest controversy over GMO’s unfolds – this time it’s about a House Bill that would ban labeling laws – it’s time for a moment of honesty about science and safety. Of course safety is hardly the only bone … Continue reading
Posted in Agriculture, Biotechnology, Food, Public Health, Regulation
Tagged agriculture, biotechnology, endocrine disruptors, environmental toxicology
57 Comments
Three stories on the factory farm
Three items crossed my desk this week concerning the factory farm scene, i.e. CAFO’s or Confined Animal Feeding Operations. Two were scientific studies with troubling implications for our health, and one was a dumb piece of clickbait concerning bestiality. Guess … Continue reading
Do Farmers Want GM Crops?
Do small farmers in developing countries want GM crops? That is a truly divisive question, and it seems like anyone with a dog in the hunt gets to speak for the farmers. I want to consider what’s wrong with the … Continue reading
Posted in Agriculture, Biotechnology, India
14 Comments
The Right to Farm Right
I’ve got an idea: why don’t we Missourians follow up on passing our ALEC-supported ag-gag law with a full-blown amendment to the state constitution to shield industrial agriculture? That way, even if someone risks being officially listed as a terrorist … Continue reading
Posted in Agriculture, Food, Industrial Agriculture, Regulation
Tagged agriculture, corruption, factory farming, small farms, virginia
7 Comments
fieldquestions 