Tag Archives: agriculture

The Most Deceptive Graph Ever Made?

Posted on June 15, 2025 by GDS

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 →

Posted in Agriculture, Food, Industrial Agriculture | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Good Luck with the Corn, RFK You A-hole

Posted on December 10, 2024 by GDS

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 , , , , | 2 Comments

Bt Cotton in Africa: What Happened in Burkina Faso?

Posted on August 6, 2016 by GDS

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 , , , , | 12 Comments

GM Foods: A Moment of Honesty

Posted on July 29, 2015 by GDS

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 , , , | 57 Comments

The Right to Farm Right

Posted on August 3, 2014 by GDS

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 , , , , | 7 Comments

Theme Park Farming in Japan

Posted on June 5, 2014 by GDS

[A different version of this post appeared as the inaugural “Notes From The Field” on the website for Culture and Agriculture.] Those of us interested in farming talk about “indigenous knowledge” a lot, but several years ago Paul Richards suggested … Continue reading →

Posted in Agriculture, Food, Industrial Agriculture, Japan | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Overpopulation and the Small Farmers of Oakwood

Posted on October 20, 2013 by GDS

Speaking of overpopulation: I found Oakwood chapel.  I was in England in May and I spent a day tracking down this little chapel that played such a fateful role in Western ideas on population and food. Oakwood (or Okewood) it … Continue reading →

Posted in Food, Population | Tagged , , , , | 6 Comments

Bt Cotton is Failing; Blame the Farmers

Posted on February 9, 2013 by GDS

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

Posted on January 13, 2013 by GDS

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

Posted on December 9, 2012 by GDS

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