Category Archives: Agriculture

Bt Cotton is Failing; Blame the Farmers

Of all the GMO controversies around the world, the saga of Bt cotton in India continues to be one of the most interesting and important. In the latest chapter, reported by the Business Standard, cotton yields have dropped to a … Continue reading

Posted in Agriculture, Biotechnology, India | Tagged , , , , , , , | 53 Comments

This is Your Brain on GMO’s

Last week British anti-GMO activist Mark Lynas took to the podium at a conference to apologize (or apologise) for having spent years “ripping up GMO’s.” Now he has decided that Genetically Modified Organisms are “an important technological option” and that … Continue reading

Posted in Agriculture, Biotechnology | Tagged , , | 10 Comments

Obesogens

Multiple choice question:  What does the “Obesity Epidemic” have to do with agriculture? What epidemic?  Obesity is an age old problem, and this “epidemic” is an invention of the press and the diet industry. There’s an epidemic alright, caused by … Continue reading

Posted in Agriculture, Food, Industrial Agriculture | Tagged , , , | 10 Comments

The Animal Lover’s Dilemma

Today’s guest blog by Elizabeth Vandeventer of Davis Creek Farm, Nelson County, Virginia.  She holds a PhD in Anthropology from Univ. of North Carolina. ************************************************************************************** When Green Mountain College, a sustainable agriculture school in Vermont, recently decided to slaughter their … Continue reading

Posted in Agriculture, Food, Industrial Agriculture | Tagged , , , | 146 Comments

More to the Story — Top 5 GMO Myths

When you hear about “Myths About GMO’s” you can usually expect a polemic from an activist.  It may be an anti-GMO activist debunking myths like “GMO’s can help feed the world” or a pro-GMO activist debunking myths like “GMO’s can’t … Continue reading

Posted in Agriculture, Biotechnology, Food, Industrial Agriculture | Tagged , , , , | 9 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

Posted in Agriculture, Food, Industrial Agriculture | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

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

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

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