Top 6 Four
Managed honeybee and bumble bee colonies in the US are up as much as 85%, a 60 year high, as independent researchers challenge bee apocalypse narrative
The Western honey bee (Apis mellifera) is amongst the best-monitored insects but the state of other managed pollinators is less well ...
Uganda’s costly dithering on GMOs
Uganda has a very extensive research and confined field-testing program for GMO crops that include disease-resistant potatoes, cassava and bananas, ...
Freezer burn wastes food. Now scientists are developing bio-based solutions to prevent recrystallization
Open the freezer door and there, way in the back, may be an old carton of ice cream growing spikes ...
Part 1: Viewpoint — ‘Misguided and counterproductive’: Why the world needs to scrap the Cartagena Safety Protocol that influences regulation and impedes global trade of GM seeds and plants
According to a long-time and widespread scientific consensus, agri-food biotechnology regulation should focus on the risks and benefits of each ...
10 key facts about Golden Rice, a GMO that can save the lives and sight of millions of children
"This rice could save a million kids a year," read a famous Time magazine cover from July 2000. The report ...
‘Minimizing the probability of adverse outcomes’ is driving the ever-changing, sometimes conflicting recommendations on mask wearing
There is increasing confusion, and even consternation, over what seem to be disparate policies, recommendations, and mandates emerging in response ...
Hulu’s Rosemary’s Baby redux ‘False Positive’ bungles the science and stretches credulity
I looked forward to Hulu’s original horror film False Positive, pitched as a modern-day Rosemary’s Baby. It premiered at the Tribeca ...
You don’t have to be a COVID vaccine rejectionist to want to fully understand the nonspecific effects (NSE) of vaccines
The world’s attention is presently focused on the mRNA vaccines, which may turn out to be the most revolutionary vaccines ...
Activists and ‘celebrity figures’ are turning public opinion against crop biotechnology in Mexico
On New Year’s Eve 2020, the Mexican government announced its plan to ban GMO corn and phase out GMO corn ...
Viewpoint: Here’s why activist environmentalists’ promotion of a ‘binary organic vs conventional/good vs evil dichotomy’ is bad for sustainable agriculture
Due to successful fear-based marketing campaigns, the demand for organic food in many affluent countries is rising far faster than ...
Saving our soil: 4 new microbial technologies that keep soil healthy and us fed
Soil microbes are hard to see and understand, yet we know that they have a significant impact on plant health, ...
Glyphosate can cure cancer? Yes, some research ‘shows’ that — but what does it mean? And what does it say about Roundup doomsday claims?
A demonstration of the fine art of cherrypicking ...
Anti-biotechnology critics say the Genetic Literacy Project is a Monsanto-funded ‘corporate front’. It’s not true. Here is the documentation — and a review of the critics behind the disinformation
Activist groups opposed to agricultural biotechnology (GMOs and gene edited crops and animals) repeatedly claim that the Genetic Literacy Project ...
How important is soil quality to addressing climate change? It’s critical, and here’s a blueprint for refocusing American R&D
COVID-19 and the resulting economic crisis have highlighted and exacerbated the plight of American farmers, while also threatening already dwindling ...
Viewpoint: ‘Killer petunias’? The shameful story of the USDA’s ‘unscientific, innovation-stifling’ process for regulating genetically-engineered flowers
Now that vivid orange, red, and purple genetically engineered petunias are approved for distribution to plant nurseries, it’s time for ...
Vaccine equity: This is what the US is doing to ensure widespread global access to COVID-19 vaccines
The U.S. is expected to soon have enough COVID-19 vaccine doses on hand to fully vaccinate just about everyone in ...
Viewpoint: Livestock—an underrated solution to climate change
Climate change is real and in many instances, agriculture’s livestock is often tagged as being a leading emitter, but what if ...
The age of genetically-enhanced children is approaching. Novelist Kazuo Ishiguro imagines a have-and-have not future, and it’s not pleasant
Biotech interventions to help sick children—like gene therapy—are approached with supreme caution. If a treatment has a reasonable chance of ...
Natural GMOs: Plants and animals ‘steal genes’ from other species during process of evolution, mimicking transgenics
Little did biologist Gregor Mendel know that his experiments with sweet peas in a monastery garden in Brno, Czech Republic, would ...
Podcast: Should farmers embrace ‘natural’ organic chemicals to replace ‘synthetic’ inputs? Moving beyond the outdated debate
As the benefits of biotechnology come to fruition, people are letting go of the dated view that we should be ...
Viewpoint: Consumer-focused GM and gene-edited products throw anti-GMO movement’s future into doubt
The bizarre QAnon conspiracy theory that has swept the nation and embedded itself in our political discourse is a prime ...
Vasectomies are becoming a political statement
The fate of male reproductive organs is not a traditional concern in debates about the environment. But this is the ...
Part 2: Why is Africa the global COVID-19 ‘cold spot’? — The historical challenge of disentangling genes and environment
Does greater prior exposure to pathogens, including other recent coronaviruses, help explain why Africa is a COVID-19 cold spot, despite ...
Catching COVID from food: A year’s worth of research dispels panic
When the COVID-19 pandemic began, not much was known about SARS-CoV-2 (the coronavirus) and its survival in food, on various materials ...
Viewpoint: Female, younger, better-educated and affluent – How ‘alternative medicine’ has taken America by storm and endangered lives
I am a skeptic and a curmudgeon, so I was surprised when a friend of 30 years asked if she ...
‘New story unfolding’: Ancient finger bones found in Asia force a rethinking of human migration
Politics, geography, and tradition have long focused archaeological attention on the evolution of Homo sapiens in Europe and Africa. Now, ...
Viewpoint: Pesticides can be harmful—but they’re also ‘vital to human health and global food security’
As much as pesticides are a threat to certain ecosystems, they’re also responsible for providing the planet with food in ...
