Agriculture

Agriculture

Is the ‘Non-GMO’ butterfly an endangered species?

You may have noticed the Non-GMO Project’s butterfly label on foods you buy at the grocery store. Created a little over a decade ago by anti-GMO activists, the label is carried today on some 55,000 different products, from food products such as breakfast cereal to non-food products such as salt and cat litter. ...
Agriculture

Issue Brief: Dishonest Propaganda Sprouts from Organic Agriculture

In The Wealth of Nations, the 18th century economist and philosopher Adam Smith observed about the chicanery of some businessmen, “People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices.” ...
Agriculture

Try the Free Market Before Tourists Are One Day Warned to Not Drink the Water in California

California has regressed from the land of opportunity to the land of crisis. A chronic housing shortage, growing homelessness problems, the highest poverty rate in the nation, and runaway public employee pension liability are ripping at the seams of the state. Add to that list of troubles the taint of ...
Agriculture

Let It Flow: Carlsbad Desalination Plant Expansion Approval A Bright Spot In A Dry State

With more than 800 miles of coastline and a great big ocean out there, California shouldn’t be always be scrambling for water as if it were in the middle of the Sahara Desert. But politics tend to make goods scarce rather than plentiful. But sometimes there’s good news. Such as ...
Agriculture

FDA Moves to Level the Food-Labeling Playing Field

The FDA is charged with ensuring that the labeling of packaged foods is not “false or misleading in any particular,” as mandated by the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. That ensures that consumers are not deceived and know what they’re paying for. In recent years, however, regulators’ enforcement priorities have ...
Agriculture

Are You Getting Anti-Vaccine Information From Russian Propagandists?

The spike in the number of measles cases in the United States is finally garnering the attention it deserves, as the number of new illnesses continues to accelerate. The number of cases in the United States now stands at more than 750, the highest number recorded in a year since the ...
Agriculture

A Scientist’s Week at the Vatican

Ten years ago this month, I had the experience of a lifetime. I was one of a small group of scholars from around the world who were convened by the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy of Sciences for a “study week.” Our subject was “Transgenic Plants for Food Security in the Context ...
Agriculture

Virtue Signaling at the Neighborhood Diner

The old adage goes that you should never talk about religion or politics at the dinner table. Working in a political world, I try to heed that advice whenever I leave work.  The last thing I want to face when going out for dinner with friends or family is politics.  ...
Agriculture

The Brave Old World of Genetic Engineering

By Henry I. Miller, M.S., M.D. and Rob Wager A Washington Post article, “The Future of Food,” discussed the methods we use to breed food crops but suffered from a shortcoming we see often: “pseudo-balance” — the seeking out of clueless commentators to contradict advocates of superior modern genetic modification ...
Agriculture

We Don’t Need to Ban Pesticides to Save Bees

Some old ideas for bad laws are endlessly recycled. Take the case of the Saving America’s Pollinators Act, a nearly six-year-old initiative now cosponsored by two Democrat representatives, Earl Blumenauer of Oregon and Jim McGovern of Massachusetts. Reintroduced for the fifth time since 2013, the bill would usurp the Environmental ...
Agriculture

Is the ‘Non-GMO’ butterfly an endangered species?

You may have noticed the Non-GMO Project’s butterfly label on foods you buy at the grocery store. Created a little over a decade ago by anti-GMO activists, the label is carried today on some 55,000 different products, from food products such as breakfast cereal to non-food products such as salt and cat litter. ...
Agriculture

Issue Brief: Dishonest Propaganda Sprouts from Organic Agriculture

In The Wealth of Nations, the 18th century economist and philosopher Adam Smith observed about the chicanery of some businessmen, “People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices.” ...
Agriculture

Try the Free Market Before Tourists Are One Day Warned to Not Drink the Water in California

California has regressed from the land of opportunity to the land of crisis. A chronic housing shortage, growing homelessness problems, the highest poverty rate in the nation, and runaway public employee pension liability are ripping at the seams of the state. Add to that list of troubles the taint of ...
Agriculture

Let It Flow: Carlsbad Desalination Plant Expansion Approval A Bright Spot In A Dry State

With more than 800 miles of coastline and a great big ocean out there, California shouldn’t be always be scrambling for water as if it were in the middle of the Sahara Desert. But politics tend to make goods scarce rather than plentiful. But sometimes there’s good news. Such as ...
Agriculture

FDA Moves to Level the Food-Labeling Playing Field

The FDA is charged with ensuring that the labeling of packaged foods is not “false or misleading in any particular,” as mandated by the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. That ensures that consumers are not deceived and know what they’re paying for. In recent years, however, regulators’ enforcement priorities have ...
Agriculture

Are You Getting Anti-Vaccine Information From Russian Propagandists?

The spike in the number of measles cases in the United States is finally garnering the attention it deserves, as the number of new illnesses continues to accelerate. The number of cases in the United States now stands at more than 750, the highest number recorded in a year since the ...
Agriculture

A Scientist’s Week at the Vatican

Ten years ago this month, I had the experience of a lifetime. I was one of a small group of scholars from around the world who were convened by the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy of Sciences for a “study week.” Our subject was “Transgenic Plants for Food Security in the Context ...
Agriculture

Virtue Signaling at the Neighborhood Diner

The old adage goes that you should never talk about religion or politics at the dinner table. Working in a political world, I try to heed that advice whenever I leave work.  The last thing I want to face when going out for dinner with friends or family is politics.  ...
Agriculture

The Brave Old World of Genetic Engineering

By Henry I. Miller, M.S., M.D. and Rob Wager A Washington Post article, “The Future of Food,” discussed the methods we use to breed food crops but suffered from a shortcoming we see often: “pseudo-balance” — the seeking out of clueless commentators to contradict advocates of superior modern genetic modification ...
Agriculture

We Don’t Need to Ban Pesticides to Save Bees

Some old ideas for bad laws are endlessly recycled. Take the case of the Saving America’s Pollinators Act, a nearly six-year-old initiative now cosponsored by two Democrat representatives, Earl Blumenauer of Oregon and Jim McGovern of Massachusetts. Reintroduced for the fifth time since 2013, the bill would usurp the Environmental ...
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