During any given week, most articles on genetically modified organisms (GMOs) follow a simplistic and/or sensationalistic storyline. For example, here’s last week’s cover story in The Village Voice: The Monsanto-Is-Evil theme is a media staple, as is the GMO-Foods-Are-Dangerous theme, of which magazines like Details and Elle are piggybacking on. (I recently discussed the latter example). Too often…Continue Reading…
There is so much to admire about this New York Times story by Amy Harmon I don’t know where to begin. [UPDATE: This insightful take by Maggie Koerth-Baker at Boing Boing–which I excerpt below–captures what is remarkable about the piece.] So let’s start with a tweet from National Geographic’s executive environment editor Dennis Dimick: Must Read:…Continue Reading…
I’m tempted to cut to the chase and tell you at the outset that conservationists have come a long away from the sense of urgency that in the mid-1980s gave birth to the field of conservation biology, which Michael Soule defined as a “crisis discipline.” True, for foot soldiers carrying the biodiversity flag the core mission…Continue Reading…
As I have previously observed, “the belief that GMO foods are deadly or potentially harmful” has come to dominate the public discourse on agricultural biotechnology. I suppose we can thank the whacky fringe elements for this (and their influential enablers). At this point, scientists and science-based communicators who engage in the biotech realm should be…Continue Reading…
When I was a boy growing up on suburban Long Island in the 1970s, my grandfather had a chicken coop enclosed behind a mesh wire fence in his West Babylon backyard. Like many of his generation seared by the 1930s depression, he developed a self-reliance and waste-not ethic (dare I leave food on my dinner…Continue Reading…
As if the meaning of “natural” wasn’t already overly twisted for ideological and commercial purposes. Check out this campaign recently launched by the nonprofit Green America: Here’s the pitch: If you thought that one way to cut GMOs from your diet was to avoid foods with high-risk GMO ingredients, think again. Meat and dairy products, while not…Continue Reading…
I have previously noted that the GMO labeling campaign in the United States is “couched as a consumer rights issue, but really it’s based on fear.” What are people afraid of? Let’s go to a recent op-ed by Linda Stender, a New Jersey politician who is sponsoring a state bill to label genetically modified foods….Continue Reading…
Several months ago, I wondered if the media’s fascination with peak oil, which crested in the mid-2000s, had ended. A big concern of many in the energy/sustainability nexus had found expression in popular culture and in visuals like this: But now the zeitgeist has flipped, from crude awakening to crude abundance, thanks to advances in…Continue Reading…
Best as I can tell, most of the internet has denounced ABC’s decision to hire Jenny McCarthy as a cohost of The View, a popular daytime talk show on American television. The uproar, in case you just returned from a week-long, off-the-grid monastic retreat, owes to McCarthy’s role as a prominent spokesperson for the anti-vaccine…Continue Reading…
Well, this is fun. Carl Zimmer has a piece on the biology of weeds in the New York Times. One of my go-to sources in this field tweeted his reaction: Perhaps the best (non-sensationalized) article about herbicide resistant weeds I’ve read: http://t.co/l2RQZiVPd3 by @carlzimmer — Andrew Kniss (@WyoWeeds) July 15, 2013 I say this is fun…Continue Reading…