Blog
Articles written for the GLP list the source as Genes and Science. All other articles were written for the sources noted with excerpts provided by the GLP.
How do you ‘boost’ your body’s immune function in the fight against the coronavirus? Answer: You can’t
The short answer to the question – how do you boost your immune system – is that you can’t. The ...
Viewpoint: Biologist Jerry Coyne challenges view that sex is ‘a spectrum, not a binary’—such claims ‘undermine public trust in science’
As a biologist, I get especially irked at the repeated claim that sex in humans is “a spectrum, not a ...
Malthusian inversion: Slowing population growth could mean cheaper food and a cleaner environment
I’ve noticed several articles in the past few weeks talking about slowing or even falling population growth .... The richer ...
Viewpoint: California jury’s decision that Monsanto failed to disclose glyphosate could cause cancer undermines EPA’s oversight of pesticide regulations since evidence suggests it is safe, agency claims
It’s no secret that Monsanto and glyphosate have taken a beating in court over the last couple years. After IARC ...
Consumers largely prefer ‘real’ beef, despite plant-based burger’s surging popularity, survey shows
With all the news about Beyond Meat’s stock price and the rolling out of the Impossible Burger at Burger King, ...
Viewpoint: France commissions new glyphosate-cancer study to justify more weed killer regulations
After reading this article, I relay the following comment from the collective Science-Technologies-Action (STA): “At the request of the [French] ...
Plant geneticist Kevin Folta: Scientific American’s rewritten anti-GMO article a ‘lesser abomination’
The Scientific American article about "dying broccoli" and "toxic corn" drew wide criticism for its unreferenced and outright false indictment ...
Viewpoint: Why GMOs? 1950s farming technology cannot feed the world in 2050
Up and down the aisles of the grocery store, there are an overwhelming number of packages that are labeled with ...
Can we teach evolutionary biology without making students ‘choose between their faith and evolution’?
Michael Reiss, a professor of science education at University College London and an Anglican Priest, suggests that “we need to ...
Viewpoint: While Kind Bar debunks ‘healthy’ organic sugar claim, it promotes equally deceptive non-GMO labels
Dear Kind Bar: [On March 6] you delighted people in the agriculture and science communities. Clif Bar tried to shame ...
Dear Anheuser-Busch, stop scaring people about alleged dangers of corn products to sell Bud Light
Anheuser-Busch caused quite a farm controversy with its Bud Light Super Bowl commercials. Remember, Bud Light bragged in those commercials ...
Bioweapons research gets quiet OK from National Institutes of Health: Here’s why that could be ‘horrific’
For more than a decade now, two scientists–one in the U.S. and one in the Netherlands–have been trying to create ...
With lab-grown meat coming to our plates, will we be eating animals in 50 years?
Climate change has altered the debate over the ethics of meat consumption, adding a new dimension that certainly changes the ...
Viewpoint: How ‘lazy journalists’ helped anti-pesticide biologist Tyrone Hayes needlessly scare the public
What do you do when....someone asks to see the raw data that your dubious claims are based on? This was ...
A look at the neglected ‘1%’ of biotech crops that slashed chemical use and boosted yields
Last year on SAIFood we discussed the benefits of the four major genetically modified (GM) crops, canola, corn, cotton and ...
Viewpoint: How monarch butterflies exposed the hypocrisy of anti-GMO Greenpeace
In the past, I have asked....two very silly sounding questions toward Greenpeace. Why do they like watermelons? And why do they like grapefruits? As ...
A prominent report claims we must eat less meat to stay healthy. A prominent agriculture expert responds the evidence is ‘weak’, more values than science
By now, I suspect many of you have seen the report by the EAT-Lancet Commission Healthy Diets from Sustainable Food ...
Viewpoint: Bipartisan opposition to GMOs driven more by activist ‘propaganda’ than politics
I have written extensively about GMOs....because it is the subject about which the difference between public opinion and the opinion of ...
Why DNA ethnicity results are so unreliable
Everyone who received DNA test kits during the holiday season has hopefully spit or swabbed and mailed and is now ...
We must end ‘over-regulation’ of crop gene editing to halt global food insecurity, says prominent Canadian agricultural scientist
[W]hen it comes to food and agriculture, the future may be predictable, but it isn’t humorous. The current situation is ...
Why a decline in mortality rates among very old people may be ‘an illusion’
An intriguing phenomenon has emerged in recent years: among very old people, the rate at which people die appears to decline when ...
Viewpoint: How Canadian farmers beat anti-GMO Greenpeace at its own game
I confess I don’t read that many books in a year – preferring shorter Internet features instead – but I’m ...
Viewpoint: How to talk to your anti-GMO relatives during the holidays
We all have them. This brother-in-law or sister-in-law, who is very active on social networks. You accepted his friendly request for family ...
Can we feed a growing world population without using yield-boosting technologies?
The production of food has environmental impacts, there is no way around this .... Nature is ruthless and weeds will ...
Viewpoint: Science needs to embrace the difference between sex and gender—without abandoning the past
Lots of sites, including three scientific societies, have rejected the new Health and Human Services guidelines that provide a classification of ...
Have GMO crops cut herbicide use? A tale of two conflicting studies
We have planted millions of acres of genetically-engineered (GE) crops, a vast majority of which are resistant to herbicides. In ...
Is ‘interstellar visitor’ an alien probe? ‘We should be appropriately skeptical’
One year ago, in October 2017, astronomers detected the first confirmed interstellar visitor to our solar system – an asteroid dubbed Oumuamua ...
Viewpoint: Europe’s GMO process-based crop regulations are a great way to kill innovation
In 2002, Europe establishing a new regulatory agency, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) to resolve its regulation problems regarding ...
