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March 14th, 2012
The harm to agriculture from pests that have developed resistance to the premier products of the biotech industry—crops containing Bt insect toxins or immune to the herbicide Roundup (containing glyphosate)—has been receiving well justified attention recently. Read More
March 6th, 2012
Clean, fresh water is an increasingly scare resource in many parts of the world—and that will get worse with climate change. A recent research article reminds us that agriculture is by far the biggest user of fresh water, and calculates that it is responsible for about 92 percent of human water use. Read More
January 19th, 2012
A new article in the respected journal BioScience raises important concerns about the harmful influence of genetically engineered herbicide resistant crops on sustainable weed control. Read More
January 10th, 2012
One of the most frequently mentioned benefits of genetically engineered crops is a reduction in chemical pesticide use on corn and cotton. Read More
December 5th, 2011
EPA has responded to reports of resistance by one of the worst insect pests of corn, called rootworm. In the past, about a billion dollars’ worth of chemical insecticides per year were used to control this pest in the U.S. Read More
October 31st, 2011
From the smell of freshly baked bread, to spaghetti, couscous, chapattis and naan, wheat, the staff of life, is an iconic food. It is also one of the world’s most widely grown crops, supplying about 31 percent of human food calories. Read More
October 24th, 2011
I just returned from the annual Tri Societies meeting, a four day event where several thousand soil scientists, crops scientists, and agronomists get together to share their latest work.
Why should anyone care about a convocation of science nerds? Read More
October 6th, 2011
Genetically engineered (GE) foods have been in our groceries for years, and are found in most processed foods in the U.S. But there is nothing on a box of corn flakes that tells you whether there are GE ingredients in that food—and the GE industry wants it to stay that way. Read More
September 13th, 2011
As I slogged into my garden, soaked by recent tropical storms and hurricane Irene, and pushed back the leaves of my zucchini plants, the wild bumblebee emerging from one of the flowers reminded me that I wasn’t doing all of the work in this plot of vegetables. Read More
August 30th, 2011
Genetically engineered crops contain combinations of two widely successful types of genes—glyphosate herbicide resistance that allows spraying the weed killer onto crops without harming them, and toxins, collectively called Bt, that kill some insect pests. Read More
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