Agriculture
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
Earth Day: Opposing Progress Trumps Protecting the Planet
By Henry I. Miller, M.S., M.D. and Jeff Stier Today is Earth Day, a celebration originally conceived by then-U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson (D-Wis.) and first held in 1970 as a “symbol of environmental responsibility and stewardship.” In the spirit of the time, it was a touchy-feely, consciousness-raising, New Age experience. ...
Agriculture
Does California Have a Future?
Republican California State Assemblyman Vince Fong recently tweeted about California’s 19 percent poverty rate, which he said “is driven by the extreme high cost of living here.” “Yet,” said Fong, “Sacramento continues to pass policies that make it even more expensive.” In a story illustrated by an artist’s rendering of a family in ...
Agriculture
An April Fool’s Day Quiz
Right by the Bay is celebrating (or lamenting) April Fool’s Day by creating the following quiz on weird and goofy laws beginning in 2019 in California. If you get a perfect score, you get a one-way ticket to Texas (April Fool’s!). True or False: Surfing is now the official sport ...
Agriculture
Don’t Scapegoat Charter Schools For School Districts’ Fiscal Woes
Governor Gavin Newsom’s move to have State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond create an expert panel to review the financial impact of charter schools on regular public schools, and put out a report by July, smells like an attempt to scapegoat charter schools. First, comments by the governor’s office ...
Agriculture
America’s Citrus Fruits Are Being Decimated By An Incurable Disease — We Need GM Science to Save Them
Farmers in the major U.S. citrus-producing regions—Florida, California, Texas and Arizona, in particular—are facing a plague of epic proportions. Oranges and a range of other citrus fruits are being decimated by an incurable disease, a lethal, bacterial infection known as “citrus greening”—or Huanglongbing. It is spread by a tiny insect, ...
Agriculture
Americans Who Want Socialism Should Consider Moving to California
Trump adviser and distinguished economist Larry Kudlow wants to put socialism on trial, challenge it, debate it, rebut it — and convict it. “I don’t want us to stand idly by,” Kudlow said at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland. “I don’t want to let this stuff fester.” It ...
Agriculture
Do organic farms really produce ‘chemical free, healthier food’?
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
CAPITAL IDEAS: The Ripple Effects of Scientific Illiteracy Can Have Dire Consequences
DOWNLOAD THE PDF There is currently a trend toward misunderstanding or misrepresenting science, and it starts early. A grade-school teacher asked the class whether a whale is a fish or a mammal. One boy raised his hand and offered, “Let’s take a vote!” This phenomenon, variously dubbed “the death of ...
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 ...
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 ...
Earth Day: Opposing Progress Trumps Protecting the Planet
By Henry I. Miller, M.S., M.D. and Jeff Stier Today is Earth Day, a celebration originally conceived by then-U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson (D-Wis.) and first held in 1970 as a “symbol of environmental responsibility and stewardship.” In the spirit of the time, it was a touchy-feely, consciousness-raising, New Age experience. ...
Does California Have a Future?
Republican California State Assemblyman Vince Fong recently tweeted about California’s 19 percent poverty rate, which he said “is driven by the extreme high cost of living here.” “Yet,” said Fong, “Sacramento continues to pass policies that make it even more expensive.” In a story illustrated by an artist’s rendering of a family in ...
An April Fool’s Day Quiz
Right by the Bay is celebrating (or lamenting) April Fool’s Day by creating the following quiz on weird and goofy laws beginning in 2019 in California. If you get a perfect score, you get a one-way ticket to Texas (April Fool’s!). True or False: Surfing is now the official sport ...
Don’t Scapegoat Charter Schools For School Districts’ Fiscal Woes
Governor Gavin Newsom’s move to have State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond create an expert panel to review the financial impact of charter schools on regular public schools, and put out a report by July, smells like an attempt to scapegoat charter schools. First, comments by the governor’s office ...
America’s Citrus Fruits Are Being Decimated By An Incurable Disease — We Need GM Science to Save Them
Farmers in the major U.S. citrus-producing regions—Florida, California, Texas and Arizona, in particular—are facing a plague of epic proportions. Oranges and a range of other citrus fruits are being decimated by an incurable disease, a lethal, bacterial infection known as “citrus greening”—or Huanglongbing. It is spread by a tiny insect, ...
Americans Who Want Socialism Should Consider Moving to California
Trump adviser and distinguished economist Larry Kudlow wants to put socialism on trial, challenge it, debate it, rebut it — and convict it. “I don’t want us to stand idly by,” Kudlow said at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland. “I don’t want to let this stuff fester.” It ...
Do organic farms really produce ‘chemical free, healthier food’?
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.” ...
CAPITAL IDEAS: The Ripple Effects of Scientific Illiteracy Can Have Dire Consequences
DOWNLOAD THE PDF There is currently a trend toward misunderstanding or misrepresenting science, and it starts early. A grade-school teacher asked the class whether a whale is a fish or a mammal. One boy raised his hand and offered, “Let’s take a vote!” This phenomenon, variously dubbed “the death of ...
