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If They Say "Agent Orange", Stop Listening

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Some people are truly slimy.  Few things frame the use of fear to attempt to motivate opinion on transgenic crops like the increasing use the phrase "Agent Orange".  It seems that you can't read an anti-GMO opinion lately where the author does not allude to the tragic use of this military agent, now in the contemporary setting of a farm near you!   And of course, they'll tell you it will be in your food.  And in your baby food.  And in your breastmilk.  It is about fear.  Period. Agent Orange was a collection of herbicides, namely 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T, that were produced by at least sixteen companies during the Vietnam War era.  They were used as defoliants, key weapons to expose an entrenched resistance in a dense jungle.  These compounds are synthetic auxins, a class of plant hormone that inspires rapid cell division and elongation growth.  Essentially, a plant grows itself to death.   The 2,4,5-T preparation was contaminated with a potent dioxin, a chemical direct

Inconvenient Glyphosate Math

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There is a lot of discussion about glyphosate use and its relative toxicity lately.  For activists, it is an easy target, as it is easy to put glyphosate in the ag input hopper in close association with DDT and other goodies that freak out affluent white people.  You can read on any activist website or comment section that "Roundup Ready seeds are doused in massive amounts of glyphosate- getting this deadly chemical into your body".  Farmer David Walton did a really nice discussion of this over at Genetic Literacy Project  recently. However, I've had this blog entry half done for ages and with the topic coming up over and over again, I thought I'd expand on David's excellent report and provide some more relative numbers, especially with respect to toxicity. Let's do some math.  --  How much is this massive amount ?  -- When is it applied to the crop?  -- How do amounts used translate to toxicity risks?  Massive Amounts?  For soybeans, the applic

Injured, Sidelined, and Hating It.

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I live a rather high-strung, active life.  I don't have kids, I have a job I adore, and have good friends that participate in a vibrant sports community.  Most people don't know the whole story.  I don't talk about it much. Today I'm complaining, so if you are reading this looking for some snarky criticism of pseudoscience hit your back button and go away.  I'm at home early tonight, going completely nuts.  Here's why. May 31, 2014 I found myself face down on the pavement, scraping forward from 25 mph to a dead stop attached to a bicycle.  I was riding in the thick of a fast-moving pace line on a usual Saturday morning club ride.  We did a fast 50 miles from Gainesville to Melrose, FL and back.  When coming back into town, the rider in front of me got a flat, hit the brakes, I hit him and went down. I fell correctly, got up, dusted off, took a deep breath, and rode my bike back to my car about another 5 miles away. My left knee swelled up like a balloon,

When Liars Cross the Line - GMO Insulin

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I was shocked, but not surprised, when a internet meme from GMO-Free USA popped up on my Facebook page: GMO Free USA (and GMO Free Canada, eh) really shows their true colors with this one.  The referenced paper has nothing to do with GMO insulin, other than saying that it is better than the stuff from animals. The rocket surgeons over at GMO Free USA really stepped in it this time.  They are using their fear-based misinformation machine to now scare people away from life-saving insulin therapy.  We all depend on insulin, a hormone synthesized in the Pancreas, to control blood sugar levels. Elevated blood sugar can lead to a variety of metabolic disorders and long-term damage to various organs. Type II diabetics produce too much at first, leading to insulin resistance, a state where the body just does not respond to the hormone and blood sugar levels remain high. Eventually type II's do not produce enough, so they need to control blood sugar with drugs, or in some cases

Predicting the Future -- Seralini Rat Paper Redux

" I don't need a crystal ball; I have a crystal brain. " - -Adam Carolla Today the famous Lumpy Rat paper was published by Seralini and colleagues.  I should say RE-published because it is basically the same content published in 2012, that was later retracted from the journal.  Personally, I was glad to see him attempt to publish it again.  The literature is where the conversation should happen, and if the work is of good quality it will be reproduced and expanded upon.  If the work is of poor quality it will die a scientific dead end, cited only by the same authors in future papers with no additional progress.  Kind of like the rest of the Seralini work.  Unfortunately the general public doesn't follow the scientific conversation. People only pick the monologues they agree with, and a single flawed study from a biased lab carries as much weight (or more) than a thousand agreeing reports from 800 different groups.  It was disappointing to see that S

Voyager's Gold Record- Vintage Technology for Extraterrestrial Audiophiles

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I'm a huge Sagan fan, and even today I am surprised at how well his words and the 70's series resonate gloriously.  But WTF is with the Gold Record on Voyager?  The records were constructed of copper with a gold plating and contain Sounds of Earth, featuring the audible signatures of our planet from birds to Chuck Berry playing guitar. The records were placed on both Voyager spacecraft launched in 1977 and now are somewhere out past Pluto.  Sagan noted, " The spacecraft will be encountered and the record played only if there are advanced space-faring   civilizations   in interstellar space." That is, if they have a turntable.  Shot into space, any extraterrestrial can enjoy "Sounds of Earth". If they have a good thrift shop they might find a way to play the damn thing. Of course, back in the 70's we were pretty sure that the LP was here to stay.  I remember thinking they should have shot the KISS Alive II double album into space too. The p

DNA Damage and Glyphosate? Critical Evaluation of a 2007 Report

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A question appeared over on GMOanswers.com and I thought I'd take a stab at it.  I remember looking at it briefly awhile ago, but it didn't stick in my brain.  Maybe because it was not worth sticking there. Last night I took a critical look at this work.  If you take the time to read it you find that even the authors have many mundane explanations for the results.  However, the title becomes a headline and is part of the glyphosate=danger mantra repeated by low-science-resolution readers that seek confirmation of their biases.  Judging by the capitalization in the question, the person with the question even cut-n-pasted the title. Not too many calories being expended to sort out this mystery!  However, education is my goal, so here goes...  Question on GMOanswers :  Can you comment on this study about DNA damage due to Roundup Evaluation of DNA damage in an Ecuadorian population exposed to glyphosate? The report you refer to is Paz-y-MiƱo et al., (2007), a "Short C