Another positive side effect of extending my stay in Iowa for another week (besides having the chance to work from a room with a view), was getting the chance to see the Pamela Ronald and Raoul Adamchak give a presentation on the same themes are their book “Tomorrow’s Table” here on campus (I’ve reviewed the book [...]
Posts under ‘Politics’
State Dinners
Anastasia has started an interesting discussion over at Biofortified about the food served at the Obamas’ first state dinner, a reception for the visiting Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh.* The dinner was quite light on meat** and included both traditional American and Indian foods. As I said last night on the twitter feed: Anyone [...]
This is Why It’s Important to Know What bt Stands For
We’ve been hearing more about India in the news lately. Along with the decision about whether or not to approve bt eggplants (brinjal), India is also debating a set of new biotechnology intellectual property laws. As I’ve said in the past India currently doesn’t recognize genetic patents, so anybody can breed transgenes into their own [...]
More on why Science Isn’t a Perfect Fit with the Right or Left
The extreme left and extreme right in the US both have problems with science. Predictably those issues are mirror images of each other.
Bruce Sterling and Kim Stanley Robinson on Climate Change
Two cool science fiction writers Bruce Sterling and Kim Stanley Robinson on climate change, ideology, and science.
Putting Prejudice over Science
I read this when it came out, but it was before I’d restarted the site full time, and Pamela Ronald restarted the discussion over on scienceblogs today. Back in May the USDA posted a report on their website about how allowing genetically engineered crops to be certified as organic would have positive environmental effects. Needless [...]
Vilsack in the News Again
This time for being the force behind a program to provide the equipment for farmers markets to accept food stamps, something that everyone should agree is a good thing. People have access to cheaper*, healthier food, farmers take home more money themselves. This comes on top of the increases in the money provided for the [...]
What is the NIFA?
More than a year ago, in May of 2008, Congress passed the Food, Conservation and Energy act of 2008. It was weird going back to read up on the coverage of the bill and reading how President Bush objected to X or proposed Y. His presidency already seems so distant. One of the things this [...]
Was the Green Revolution Helpful?
This will be a post on policy. Ideally I should maintain separate blogs for policy/science and personal posts, but I have enough trouble finding the time to maintain one blog, let alone two. Via LaVidaLocavore “Prior to the Green Revolution, Indians were poor and starving but their agriculture was sustainable. And the U.S. gave them [...]
Bad Teachers
Edit: Upon reflection it is quite possible this woman is excellent at teaching whatever it is she teaches. The more important lesson of this incident should perhaps be the importance of learning to distinguish between where one is actually an expert and one is not. This mistake can be made by anyone, including myself, when [...]