Do seed companies control GM crop research?
Scientific American - 8/18/2009.Editorial – ... Unfortunately, it is impossible to verify that genetically modified crops perform as advertised. That is because agritech companies have given themselves veto power over the work of independent researchers. |
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Popular herbicide more deadly to liver cells than its active chemical alone
Environmental Health News - 8/18/2009.Synopsis by Negin P. Martin, Ph.D – Very low doses of some types of the herbicide Roundup can disrupt human liver cell function; the formulations' toxicity may be tied to their "inactive" ingredients rather than the active weed-killing ingredient glyphosate. French scientists report that a number of Roundup formulations tested at very dilute concentrations can alter hormone actions and cause human liver cells to die within 24 hours of treatment. |
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Organic agriculture beats biotech at its own game
Huffington Post - 8/18/2009.By Timothy LaSalle – Organic agriculture's recently recognized benefits for improving food security don't depend on a boost from genetically modified (GM) technology. While the chemically-based systems that GM requires could be cleaned up with organic techniques, there's no clear reason to degrade organic standards to accept the downsides that come with biotech-produced crops as they are currently managed. |
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Putting wasps to work
Lewiston Sun Journal - 8/17/2009. By Kathryn Skelton – Maine has become the first state to employ wasps as unwitting scientific accomplices. For volunteers with nets, ready to spring at a moment's notice, it's a project to protect the Maine woods from voracious beetles. State forest entomologist Colleen Teerling has spent part of the summer training volunteers and pairing them with colonies of cerceris fumipennis, a ground wasp whose young dine on shiny, wood-boring beetles and – happily for volunteers – don't sting. The effort, Teerling said, is all about keeping an eye out for the green metallic emerald ash borer, a beetle that's destroyed millions of trees in North America but hasn't been found in Maine, yet. |
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