Illumination 2.0

The news that I was the recipient of the 2016 CAST Borlaug Agricultural Communications Award added a new extreme to the wild emotional dynamics of the past twelve months.  Celebrate, suffer; dance, cry; hurt, heal. Quit, start, refresh, retreat. Lather, rinse repeat. Back in August and September 2015 I read in disbelief that I was part of Monsanto’s “inner circle”, one of their “strategic advisors” with “close ties” that “took money to lie about science” and “used undisclosed funds to thwart labeling efforts.”  I read the websites, I read the articles.  The person I was reading about was not the person in the mirror. But in the day of the internet, the person in the mirror is forced to take the yoke that the most devious person installs.  You become, in perception, who they decide you are.  You lose control of your own persona—that is left to those that want to destroy you. There is nothing you can do if you are a mostly unknown public scientist that has a minor social m

Those quick to criticize genetic engineering in food were not pleased with the Simplot non-browning potato or the non-browning Arctic Apple.  In these cases the enzyme polyphenol oxidase (PPO) is disabled using a genetic engineering approach. Without this enzyme, plant materials do not turn off colors upon exposure to air, keeping postharvest quality high. Everyone from Michael Hansen to Dr. Oz went on the warpath, generating fear and doubt about the safety of the apple upon its release.  Criticisms abounded on the web , claiming that the new products were dangerous, that PPO was important, and that nobody knows what is going to happen if we eat non-browning produce.  Those of us that think about food and crop biology on a daily basis know of examples where defects in PPO have been of interest for a long time.   One great example is the golden raisin.  No PPO activity, and plant breeders and consumers celebrated new little dried weird fruits that were clear and golden rather than d

When you can pick through someone's emails, you can assemble the story you want to tell, and use that manufactured story to harm their reputations.  Facts don't matter. If you had 5000 pages of someone's communications, what story could you tell?  The climate deniers and anti-GMO folks have it down to a science.  I'm seeing it happening today, again.  Over on Twitter I have still been enduring hostile harassment, this time from another set of claims from another newly-established account.  They again play off of the tired trope that I'm some agent of Monsanto and am financed by them.  This is posted for two reasons.   1. Does their repetition of the same misinformation lead others to have questions?  I'm glad to clarify them here.  2. It is good to show how they cherry pick unrelated events and make them seem related by strategically gluing them together.  On the left, my words.  On the right, a letter in my emails that were confiscated under publ

Tip 1.  Go buy a chicken.  Tip 2.  Enjoy.  This free range chicken is certified as "No Added Hormones", which is correct, because hormones are not used on chickens.       Without a doubt, today across America concerned consumers will purchase poultry selected because producers promise it is free of hormones. I would bet dollars to doughnuts that most don't know what hormones are or why they would even be used.  However, hormones are in the elusive cluster of compounds known to be evil in food, but nobody really knows why.  Hormones are one of the corners of the Rhombus of Food Anxiety . 

This week's podcast talks about the efforts at Kansas Wheat Innovation Center and the work of Dr. Chris Miller.  He's searching for wheat varieties that lack the sequences in the proteins that comprise gluten (giladin and glutenin) that trigger immune response. These could be very helpful in breeding new varieties. There also are gene-editing solutions in the works.  With guest host Kevin Klatt from Cornell University. 

Over the last few years I've watched battles brew and millions of dollars be spent on a silly proposition-- how do we legislate a means to separate good food from good food with a decoration on the box? So in my ever-evolving opinion-- voluntary labels are the solution, but the industry must move fast before new legislation is on the ballot, and before activists move the goalpost.  The issues of labeling food that contains hints of ingredients that were produced in a plant that has been genetically engineered are extremely problematic.  Scientists see little utility, as it confuses the public, provides zero useful information, stands to scare consumers, and if mandated, will substantially raise prices.  Every state will have different rules (and Vermont will not require cheese made with GMO enzymes to be labeled, go figure) and segregation of materials is already leading to more issues for growers. More on that later.  The way around? Voluntary labels.  The Vermont la

While we don't normally think about it, it comes from a plant!  Making matters worse, coffee production has an array of challenges that could threaten availability.  I'm not talking about late-night Dunkin Donuts weirdos. Diseases, pests, and a variety of other issues may become formidable barriers between you and that crazy awake feeling.  The podcast features Hanna Neuschwander from World Coffee Research.