Illumination 2.0

I was at the Lihue Farmers' Market on a beautifully warm morning in July.  The sun was bright and chickens meandered among shoppers' feet, all with the lush green backdrop of lovely Kauai.  I was visiting on the request of the Hawaii Crop Improvement Association, there to help answer public concerns about transgenic (GMO) technology. I was there with Dr. Steve Savage, along with Renee and Kirby Kester (from HCIA) and a local television guy. It was the first day with new people that would become life-long friends (not so much the camera guy). I had wonderful interactions with farmers as well as those opposed to GM technology.  Those unhappy with biotech on the island were clearly identified by their red shirts that urged support for County Ordinance 2491, a local initiative that would impose tough (almost impossible) restrictions on the seed companies that shared the island.  Kauai is an off-season nursery for mainland seed production. After sampling the sweetest ...

The anti-GMO believers have learned that the constant release of tenuous, unconfirmed, even fake, information is critical to their misinformation campaign, as it resonates favorably with the biotech-knowledge-less. Such nuggets of fraud are stitched together by social media, gaining momentum from wide acceptance among the willing, and are incorporated into the permanent body of their factless reality. Last week at Sustainable Pulse I found this: Leukemia Boom?  Sounds serious.  At least it is actually a picture of HAU. The story claims that students are fed Bt rice in the cafeterias of Huazhong Agricultural University (HAU; the region's leading ag university), and now ten students are sick with leukemia.  Even if that was true, those numbers are hardly statistical reinforcement of anything, especially at a university where most days you can't see 50 m down the street. HAU is in Wuhan, China, and the air quality is pretty rotten. I think, as usual, the whole s...

Last week I was so happy to answer a thousand thoughtful questions on Science Reddit.  Many questions were moderator blocked (which I discouraged), so angry queries found a home over on the "Kevin Folta Monsanto Cheerleader" reddit thread. Monsanto cheerleader?  And then they put the word scientist in quotes.  They are convinced I"m a corporate cheerleader and not a scientist.  Shows how well they know me and what I do.   I'm really proud to say that I'm a Professor at UF.  I work with some of the best science minds out there and am always humbled by the amazing work going on here.  That's no secret.  But Monsanto Cheerleader? When I told them that I had no formal connection to Monsanto (other than visiting there last week to talk about how they could improve their outreach, first time ever there), GM opponents scoured the web, searching for any morsel of evidence to connect me to deep financial collusion with the Big M. They were cer...

It has been widely shown that the anti-GMO movement does not have evidence to support their position.  In the absence of science, biotech opponents must resort to misinformation and fear in order to achieve their goals. Today a report surfaced about It reminded me of a post I produced last year. In China, GM cotton has been used for over a decade and the technology has brought tremendous advantages.  In 2003, the use of Bt cotton stopped over 300,000 tons of insecticide from being applied (Pam Ronald, Tomrorow's Table).  The technology is doing well, and today there is a great discussion among Chinese scientists about the technology-- and they are for the development of such products. However, the anti-GM movement has effectively manipulated Chinese citizens.  In the USA, you scare people by telling them they'll be fat and packed with tumors like a 2-year old Sprague Dawley Rat. In China, you need to tell them that they won't be able to have children. With ru...

In the last blog I wrote about correspondence from a young woman that apparently was not interested in scientific interaction.  To review, she posted a note on the Stop Neil deGrasse Tyson from Talking about Science petition , requesting he contact her so that she could give his dim self some book learnin'.  She provided an email address in this public forum. Dr. Tyson is a busy guy.  He's trying to disentangle fundamental questions about our universe, and may not be surfing crackpot websites, especially those trying to censor him. To be of service, I wrote a short and punchy note to (we'll call her RK) only to earn a semi-psychopathic retort. I get it.  Asking Neil deGrasse Tyson to contact you and then getting a note from Kevin Folta is a lot like ordering a pizza and having the delivery guy show up with a used tube sock filled with guacamole. I'm sure she was disappointed, but when life hands you a tube sock of guacamole, get the chips! I took the time ...

Last weekend when skimming the petition to silence Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson I stumbled upon one that seemed really odd.  The author, I'm guessing a female, said, "End the Bt (Agent Orange) Toxic Corn", as part of her rant.  She offered her email address an suggested that Dr. Tyson contact her, of course, perhaps in more crunchy tones. Seeing as though Dr. Tyson was probably busy solving problems of the cosmos and not likely to respond to this request, I kindly took it upon myself to send her a quick note and clarify her Bt/Agent Orange foible. Shortly thereafter I received her gentle retort. Reaching out to touch the lives of others with the gift of science.  My she is one feisty space bat.  I'd recommend Occupy a Padded Cell. I'm guessing her trusted and accredited news sources is probably Natural News. My first note to her was honest and well intended, and I'd be glad to talk to her about transgenics, Bt, 2,4-D, agent orange, whatever.  I ...

This is likely one of the worst papers ever to be published. However, to some, it is stellar evidence. Here's one website claiming that the link between glyphosate and piglet deformities is now CONFIRMED!    At least that's what many in the anti-GMO community think, and a recent paper is all the proof they need.  A new steamer from Monika Kruger's group in Germany provides low-power investigation oozing with no science, heavy rhetorical flourish, and missing controls. The whole thing is designed to scare the bejezzus out of the credulous.  And it works!  I only found this because an anti-GMO soul on a comments section pointed to it as "irrefutable evidence tying glyphosate to birth defects".  The work appears in May's  J Environ Anal Toxicol.  First, articles in "Omics" journals are usually pretty lame. They are a well known predatory publisher that will publish anything if the price is right.   Second, K...

I was grateful when Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson accidentally stepped in science's ripest dookie- anti-GMO pseudoscience.  He's getting to experience first hand what it is like to be a scientist trying to communicate sound science with the most rabid bunch of clueless know-it-alls ever amassed under a single banner. When asked last week about transgenic crops, he said that humans have been manipulating genes for thousands of years, so "chill out".  He's exactly right.  Humans have been taking the trash that nature gave us and folding it into useful crops for certainly the last 10,000 years. The process is random and wild, and only since the dawn of biotechnology do we have any handle on what genes we are moving and how we do it. However, far be it from the anti-GMO movement to accept scientific facts.  To them, Tyson is a sellout to corporate seed greed, a Monsanto Collaborator, and probably someone that Mike Adams wants dead. I wrapped up my Saturday science day...

Grandpa Folta liked Consumer Reports , the magazine that would help him find maximum value in his oil filters and bacon bits. They have been recognized for a long time as an objective source of critical side-by-side analysis of consumer goods, and I've made decisions based on their recommendations. The magazine is still popular, and is well known for its independent evaluation of consumer goods, helping the consumer make better buying decisions. My friend Chris alerted me to a little Consumer Credulity. The latest version shows that even an source claiming objective and technically sound analysis, is not immune from the bias of bad information.  A recent article on Milk Alternatives: Should You Sip or Skip provides a short evaluation of the various consumer milk substitutes, stuff like coconut milk, soy milk, almond milk and other dairy alternatives. You can read about the pros and cons of milk substitutes in the latest Consumer Reports .  Unfortunately their reviewer...