Top 6 Four
Podcast: Gene editing and public acceptance — Agricultural economist Brandon McFadden on regulatory differences in agriculture and medicine for using CRISPR
Gene editing with CRISPR/Cas, TALEN or other tools allows scientists to make directed and precise changes in DNA. The technologies ...
Consumer paradox: As media turn less negative on genetically modified crops, Canadian consumers remain ambivalent about innovative food products
Canadians have high trust in Canada’s food safety system, but not new food products Gauging consumer attitudes to genetically modified ...
Viewpoint: Toxic fruits and vegetables? Inspired by Environmental Working Group’s chemical scare fundraising gimmick in the US, Pesticide Action Network brings disinformation to Europe
Would you feed fruits and vegetables to your family after reading these headlines? Many European consumers may not, and they’d ...
Part II: Seeds of Reaction — How anti-GMO ‘progressivism’ morphed into a technophobic science rejectionist movement
Part One of this essay on the evolution of anti-GMO activism ended with an introduction to the book The Rhetoric ...
Green Revolution 2.0 is unfolding, driven by biotechnology innovation. Here is what you can expect
We are in the early stages of a revolution in food and agriculture that will exceed the tremendous accomplishments of ...
Once-a-month injection to control opioid addiction? Buprenorphine has shown enormous promise
Dr. Andrew Herring has a clear goal walking into every appointment with patients seeking medication to treat an opioid use ...
Was GMO critic Sheldon Krimsky ‘rigorous’ and ‘courageous’ as Ralph Nader and the NY Times claim? Or was the recently-deceased Tufts professor an anti-science crank?
Was Sheldon Krimsky a seer who appropriately warned about a lack of oversight of the biotechnology revolution, including the inherent ...
How crop gene editing increases nutrition and sustainability
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were launched in 2015, with the top three goals being poverty eradication, improved food security ...
Viewpoint: Anti-biotechnology activists claim Western corporations ‘colonize’ the developing world. Here’s why they are wrong
Today, many scientific discussions are shot through with social justice rhetoric, and the debate over food security in the developing world ...
Part 1: Does Europe-based Precautionary Principle protect consumers from reckless corporations or retard innovation and undermine public trust in science?
Proponents of the precautionary principle often claim that it is necessary to secure public trust in research and technology. Without ...
Part II: The Clean 18 — USDA finds almost no pesticide-related health concerns from fruits and vegetables grown on American farms, while data on organic food is lacking
The purpose of the following section is to explore commodity to commodity differences by a variety of measures and not ...
Viewpoint: There is a solution to the devastating poultry pandemic – but anti-technology activist groups and outdated regulations are blocking it
The bulldozer belches black smoke into the air, an engine revving with extra effort to push a hill of feathered ...
How once-distinguished The Lancet has become hothouse for anti-science advocacy
Misinformation is rampant on social media. The science community has spent most of the last two years trying to slow ...
Viewpoint: Organic farming best addresses climate change? Why the popular consensus is wrong—and why GE crops should be agriculture’s future
Popular wisdom is often wrong. Consider, for example, how it views organic agriculture, which has grown to a $48 billion a ...
Organic farming is both yield intense and more sustainable? BBC bungles revision of pro-organic ‘propaganda’ aimed at school children
Despite an investigation by BBC’s rural affairs broadcaster Tom Heap, the network continues to peddle fact-challenged study guides promoting organic ...
‘Organic label doesn’t always mean safer,’ study finds: Spinosad insecticide more damaging to beneficial insects than synthetic imidacloprid neonicotinoid banned in Europe
Very low concentrations of the popular organic insecticide spinosad have profound effects on beneficial insect species, including vision loss and ...
Do we need more risk studies to confirm the safety of genetically engineered crops?
The appeal of the 31 European Union parliamentarians [1,2] to the European Commission to provide funds for research on the ...
Would widespread adoption of organic farming practices be a good idea from a climate change perspective?
Agriculture plays a complex role when it comes to climate change. Farming does contribute a significant share of certain greenhouse ...
Viewpoint: Will there ever be organic GMOs? Here’s the science behind why it it’s a good idea
What’s your preference: Food that is organic or not organic? Grown from genetically modified (engineered) seeds or not? How about ...
Viewpoint: Scientific American’s bizarre promotion of ‘woke’ agricultural biotechnology rejectionism
Recently I highlighted four disturbing trends in science journalism that are destroying the public's trust in mainstream academic and public health ...
Viewpoint: How the hazard-based, European-promoted ‘Precautionary Principle’ has undermined global agriculture — and why we should kill it
Twenty years is a long time in the wilderness. Since 2001 and the European Environment Agency’s publication, Late Lessons from Early ...
GMO 25-year safety endorsement: 280 science institutions, more than 3,000 studies
Despite vehement public debate, there is an overwhelming scientific consensus that GE foods present no greater risk than non-GMO crops, ...
How did this acupuncture study get published in Nature?
Before the COVID-19 pandemic hit in early 2020, an unfortunately all-too-common topic for me was the proliferation of dubious acupuncture ...
USRTK and other anti-biotechnology groups are using COVID lab-leak theory to spur opposition to life-saving innovations
Hoping to keep their cause alive in the wake of the pandemic, the anti-GMO movement has glommed on to a ...
Viewpoint: Do phthalates and other chemicals used in food packaging threaten your health, as recent headlines claim? Here’s the science
"Synthetic chemical in consumer products linked to early death, study finds.” "People with the highest levels of phthalates had a ...
Are pesticides in foods a new holiday concern? (‘No’)
The holidays are typically centered around food. Large gatherings of families eating holiday meals, potlucks at work and churches, and ...
‘Monsatan’ resurrected: Washington Post bungles review of misguided (and erroneous) new book
What better time than the Halloween season to indulge anxieties about mortality and its discontents and give running room to ...
