Steve Strauss
trees: forest biotechnology
Carol Mallory-Smith
grasses: gene flow and herbicide resistance
Jim Peterson
wheat: breeding and genetics
Paul Jepson
integrated pest management & GE
The Food for Thought Lecture Series brings internationally recognized experts to OSU to speak about biotechnological issues. On May 5, Ronald Herring gave the final lecture in this year's series, titled Playing God: Monsters, Miracles, and the Politics of Genetic Engineering.
In his FFT lecture, Herring discussed how the genetic engineering of crops has become a proxy for much larger ideological and political debates. He explored the consequences of limiting this technology for poverty alleviation, global trade, and the environment.
Panelists at GMO forum ask consumers to seek out good information
WillametteLive.com, 10 February 2009
The response from a group of four panelists at a forum held recently at the Salem Public Library on genetically-modified organisms (GMOs) seemed unanimous: Be informed. The panel featured David Harry, associate director of Outreach in Biotechnology; Lisa Weasel, author of "Food Fray: Inside the Controversy over Genetically Modified Food" and associate professor of biology at Portland State University; Terry Witt, executive director of Oregonians for Food and Shelter; and Rick North, program director for Oregon's Campaign for Safe Foods Program. Dan Hilburn, administrator of the Oregon Department of Agriculture's Plant Division, moderated the forum.
Technology may be key in solving food crisis caused by climate change and competition for land use
Press Association, 22 January 2009
According to a recent report by the Royal Society of Chemistry and the Institution of Chemical Engineers, both of the UK, the world is heading for a food crisis caused by climate change and competition for land use, and only technology can guarantee global food sustainability. The report calls for the development of genetically engineered pest and drought resistant crops and nutritionally enhanced crops. Regulations, it says, must be "based on an evaluation of the risk, using sound evidence, and not on a socio-political fear of new technology."
Genetically engineered rice food crops and tobacco biopharm crops have differing costs and benefits
USDA-CSREES, 21 January 2009
A recent study of the costs and benefits of agricultural biotechnology determined that pharmaceutical companies and patent holders would benefit from using tobacco crops for biopharming, but the economic outcome for farmers and the public would be limited, and that the developing world would see a benefit of about $2 billion per year from insect-, drought-, and herbicide-resistant genetically modified rice technologies, while the United States would experience a small net loss. The study was funded by the USDA's Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service and implemented by economists at Virginia Polytechnic Institute.
Producers of genetically engineered sugar beet barred from initial phase of federal lawsuit
Nearly all of America's sugar beet seeds are grown in Oregon's Willamette Valley. Most have been genetically engineered to withstand the weed killer, glyphosate.
Farmers choose to plant glyphosate-resistant sugar beet because it allows them to use no-till agricultural practices - which have economic and environmental benefits. But there is fear that the GE pollen will contaminate nearby fields.
A coalition of groups including some organic farmers are saying that the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service did not do its job when reviewing the potential ecological and economic effects of growing GE sugar beet. The federal judge hearing their lawsuit has barred seed producers from giving evidence or calling expert witnesses, limiting their involvement to a letter summarizing their support for the USDA decision.
Rethink GMOs as sustainable agriculture
"Bacterial genes in your banana nut bread may sound like a big yuckorama, but the underlying biological principle that makes that possible is actually quite beautiful: Unity."
In October 2008, a rulemaking hearing took place to establish a review system for federal permit applications to grow biopharmaceutical crops in Oregon
Follow this link for more biotech news.
