Ag Biotech Communications
‘Greenwashing’: Does plant-based marketing mislead consumers about sustainability?
"Greenwashing” is the term used to describe the promotion of a product based on misleading claims of superiority to other ...
Vaccination wars: In the fight against COVID-19, pro-vax movement emerges to battle vaccine denialism
A new advocacy campaign is designed to mobilize the majority to speak out to help fight [vaccine] misinformation, at a ...
Viewpoint: How hazard-designation agency WHO’s IARC—International Agency for Research on Cancer—misleads regulators and the public
[W]ood dust, solar radiation (the sun), soot, very hot beverages, night shift work and Ginko biloba… can give you cancer ...
Anti-vax activists exploit dark history of Tuskegee syphilis study to stir Black opposition to COVID-19 vaccines
[There’s] a remarkable new alliance between the anti-vaccine movement and black leaders in Colorado. Among those who testified against [a ...
Interactive Infographic: What is the risk of interacting with a COVID-19 positive individual in every county in the US
See the interactive infographic here ...
In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, Daniel Defoe’s account of London’s 1665 bubonic plague offers a shock of recognition
Pandemics have punctuated recorded history going back to ancient Greece and Egypt. However, the novel coronavirus pandemic is unfolding in ...
Consumers are as open to seafood labeled ‘cell based’ as they are to ‘wild caught’ and ‘farm raised’
The research found common names using the word cell — including cell-based and cultivated from the cells of — did ...
Re-energized anti-vaccine activism is growing on the right and winning the social media battle to discredit coming coronavirus treatments
What does an antivaxxer and a far-right activist have in common? If the thought of someone who opposes vaccines brings ...
Viewpoint: Calling gene-edited crops ‘natural’ won’t dispel public skepticism. Here’s a better way to build trust in CRISPR
What determines whether a genetically modified vegetable or fruit is natural? ...
Podcast: Doctors have to think about sex; AI text generators spread ‘fake news’? Coffee can indeed make you poop
An ER physician says doctors have to consider biological sex to properly care for their patients. Coffee can send some ...
Latest partisan flashpoint: Gap between rising confirmed coronavirus infections and relatively flat death rate
President Donald Trump has brushed off the coronavirus surge by emphasizing the lower death rate, saying that “99 percent of ...
Why facts don’t work against vaccine deniers and other science skeptics
Bemoaning uneven individual and state compliance with public health recommendations, top U.S. COVID-19 adviser Anthony Fauci recently blamed the country’s ...
Viewpoint: Organic food represents a ‘reactionary’ ideology that doesn’t support health or sustainable farming—and should not be subsidized
The health and environmental benefits claimed by organic agriculture are based on shaky scientific foundations ...
Viewpoint: All milk is ‘non-GMO,’ and 4 other facts you should know before you go grocery shopping
Just as you don’t want food with empty calories, avoid food with empty label claims such as “____-free”, “natural”, “farm-raised” ...
Viewpoint: Plant-based meats promote veganism in ways animal rights activists never could
Author and animal-rights activist Jonathan Safran Foer [author of the book Eating Animals] recently argued in a New York Times ...
Could success of Europe’s only cultivated GMO crop help ease public fear of biotechnology?
Within the spirit of breaking the taboo around [GMOs], we had decided to start working on a manuscript a few ...
A precautionary tale of COVID and GMO pseudoscience
Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, it’s sparked numerous conspiracy theories that are often spread by extreme right and “alternative” medicine ...
After Bayer settles glyphosate-cancer suits, Australian farmers pledge to defend the herbicide
In spite of the fact Bayer made no admission of guilt when settling with plaintiffs that alleged its glyphosate-based herbicides ...
The dangerous spread of coronavirus misinformation and magical thinking
Although credentialed scientists have been very clear that there is currently no cure for coronavirus, magical thinking of the pseudoscience ...
Viewpoint: How organic farming exploits consumer demand for ‘authenticity’
Seeking 'authenticity' is fine -- unless it deprives you of something beneficial ...
Indian environmental scientist blasts anti-GMO celebrity Vandana Shiva for ‘baseless’ assault on biotech crops
A reader curious about celebrities’ role in the radical environmental movement emailed me recently. He wondered if .... their claims ...
Talking Biotech: Where did GMOs come from? Former Monsanto scientist Robb Fraley recounts the advent of biotech crops
On the five-year anniversary of the Talking Biotech podcast, host and plant geneticist Kevin Folta sits down with former Monsanto ...
COVID-19 prompts healthier eating habits, while interest in ‘natural’ foods remains high
More than four out of five consumers say the coronavirus pandemic has changed their food habits, driving them to cook, ...
Human bias against new ideas amplifies safety concerns about GMOs, study confirms
Recency bias states that more recent memories come to mind more quickly. But specific ideas and objects that have “stood ...
Viewpoint: Why the world needs GMOs—4 farmers make the case for biotech crops
The lopsided conversation between experienced farmers and clueless activists has severe consequences ...
Plant scientists want New Zealand to fact check ‘mythology’ surrounding regenerative farming
Two prominent plant science academics have called for the establishment of an expert panel of scientists to review claims made ...
Viewpoint: Beware a fraudulent ‘October vaccine surprise’ as Trump maneuvers to win re-election
Oct. 23, 2020, 9 a.m., with 10 days before the election, Fox New releases a poll showing President Trump trailing ...