Are ‘GMOs’ good or bad? Are they safe to eat? Are they symbolic of what is wrong with our food system? According to plant geneticist Pamela Ronald, such generalisations make little scientific sense and do nothing to advance discussions on sustainable agriculture. This week, we talk ‘GMOs’ with Pamela Ronald from the University of California Davis. Pam and her colleagues have received a number of awards for their work on submergence-tolerant rice. She’s also very well known for her pragmatic but unique approach to sustainable agriculture that brings together genetic engineering and organic farming.   We discuss:  The issues with defining and discussing GMOs in a generalist sense Some of the criticisms associated with the topic, the misconceptions and misinformation The role genetic engineering may play in helping to forge disease-resistant, climate-change-resilient crops The millions of farmers planting seeds carrying a gene Pam and her collaborators isolated. Sustainable agriculture: combining genetic engineering with organic farming    Links:   The Case for Engineering our Food - Pamela Ronald TED Talk Pam's Book-  Tomorrow's Table: Organic Farming, Genetics, and the Future of Food  Recent overview of GMOs - McKay Jenkins (2017)  Food Fight: GMOs and the Future of the American Diet Washington Post interviews Mckay Jenkins: 'We're having the wrong arguments about GMOs' Bill & Melinda Gates weigh in: GMOs combatting starvation in Africa   

FFS 009 - Stop Generalising GMOs

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To mark 50 episodes on the podcast, I share my own evolving thoughts on food. I reflect on the state of agriculture and on what sustainability might mean in the food movement today. My experience over the last half decade engaging with the food movement has been that debates are all too often reduced to soundbites on social media. Complex arguments are reduced to 280 characters on Twitter, angry posts on Facebook, and rants on YouTube. We're talking past each other. That's unhelpful.  By sharing my thoughts, I hope to encourage more honest, open and nuanced discussions with whoever is listening.  In this episode, I briefly discuss:  The failed promises of industrial agriculture The winners and losers of our food system Food sustainability through different lenses Agriculture and humanity's relationship to nature The future of farming through Charles C. Mann's Prophets and Wizards The land sharing land sparing debate Funding: where does all the money flow? Agroecology and its critics The dilemmas of cell-based and plant-based meat    References (in chronological order):  World Health Organisation (WHO) -  Obesity and Overweight Fact Sheet Lappé, Francis M., Fowler, Carey and Collins, Joseph (1977)  Food First: Beyond the Myth of Scarcity White, Allen (2016) -  'Solving the 10,000-Year-Old Problem of Agriculture: An Interview with Wes Jackson' In These Times Online  Jackson, Wes & Berry, Wendell (2011)  Nature as Measure: The Selected Essays of Wes Jackson Ritchie, Hannah (2021)  'Cutting down forests: what are the drivers of deforestation?' Our World In Data  United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) (2021)  'Our global food system is the primary driver of biodiversity loss' Mann, Charles C. (2018)  The Wizard and the Prophet: Two Remarkable Scientists and Their Dueling Visions to Shape Tomorrow's World. Knopf publishing. Barretto, Alberto & Berndes, Göran & Sparovek, Gerd & Wirsenius, Stefan. (2013).  Agricultural intensification in Brazil and its effects on land-use patterns: An analysis of the 1975–2006 period. Global change biology. 19(6). 10.1111/gcb.12174.  Holt-Giménez, Eric & Shattuck, Annie & Altieri, Miguel & Herren, Hans & Gliessman, Steve. (2012)  We Already Grow Enough Food for 10 Billion People … and Still Can't End Hunger. Journal of Sustainable Agriculture 36. 595-598. Biovision Foundation for Ecological Development & IPES-Food (2020)  Money Flows: What is holding back investment in agroecological research for Africa? Biovision Foundation for Ecological Development & International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems De Schutter, Olivier & Vermeylen, Margot (2020)  The share of agroecology in Belgian official development assistance: an opportunity missed  Meier, M. S. et al. (2015)  Environmental impacts of organic and conventional agricultural products – are differences captured by life cycle assessment?  Journal of Environmental Management 149, 193–207  Van der Werf, H.M.G., Knudsen, M.T. & Cederberg, C. (2020)  Towards better representation of organic agriculture in life cycle assessment. Nature Sustainability 3, 419–425   Declaration of the International Forum for Agroecology (2015) Nyéléni, Mali. Via Campesina website IPES-Food (2016)  From uniformity to diversity: a paradigm shift from industrial agriculture to diversifed agroecological systems. International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food systems.  Levidow, Les (2016)  Agroecological Innovation. International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM).  Cook, C.D., Hamerschlag, K., and Klein, K. (2016)  Farming for the Future: Organic and Agroecological Solutions to Feed the World. Friends of the Earth. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. (2009) 1.02 billion hungry. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. (2009) The state of food insecurity in the world. Rome, Italy: Economic and Social DevelopmentDepartment Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Reganold, J., Wachter, J. (2016) Organic agriculture in the twenty-first century. Nature Plants 2, 15221  Rodale Institute (2020)  The Truth about Organic. Kutztown, PA.  Galloway McLean, Kirsty & Castillo, Ameyali & Rubis, Jennifer. (2011).  Indigenous Peoples, Marginalized Populations and Climate Change: Vulnerability, Adaptation and Traditional Knowledge Debal Deb (2009) “Valuing folk crop varieties for agroecology and food security”, Independent Science News (26 October 2009).  United Nations (2015) United Nations General Assembly,  Right to Food, UN Doc. A/70/287 Philpott, Stacy & Lin, Brenda & Jha, Shalene & Brines, Shannon. (2008).  A multi-scale assessment of hurricane impacts based on land-use and topographic features. Agric Ecosyst Environ. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment. 128. 12-20.  Rosset, Peter & Sosa, Braulio & Jaime, Adilén & Avila, Rocio. (2011).  The Campesino-to-Campesino Agroecology Movement of ANAP in Cuba: Social Process Methodology in the Construction of Sustainable Peasant Agriculture and Food Sovereignty. The Journal of peasant studies. 38. 161-91. Poux, X., Aubert, P.-M. (2018).  An agroecological Europe in 2050: multifunctional agriculture for healthy eating. Findings from the Ten Years For Agroecology (TYFA) modelling exercise, Iddri-AScA, Study N°09/18, Paris, France  Fairlie, Simon (2010) Meat: A Benign Extravagance. Permanent Publications, Hampshire, UK.  Carrington, Damian (2019) '$1m a minute: the farming subsidies destroying the world - report' The Guardian.  The Food and Land Use Coalition (2019)  Growing Better: Ten Critical Transitions to Transform Food and Land Use. The Global Consultation Report of the Food and Land Use Coalition.  You might also like:   FFS 000 - Why A Food Podcast?  FFS 041 - On the Frontlines of Food  FFS 033 - A Case for Eating Meat 

FFS 049 - Where I stand on food today

Guilt and shame are deeply present in our relationship with food. How do we harness these emotions for good? When it comes to eating animals, can guilt and shame positively influence our behaviour or those of corporations to reduce our environmental foodprint?   We are joined by Dr. Jennifer Jacquet - Associate Professor in the Department of Environmental Studies at NYU. Jennifer does interdisciplinary research on globalized environmental problems, including the wildlife trade, fisheries, and climate change. She is the author of the book "Is Shame Necessary? New Uses for an Old Tool" and the co-author of a recent study exploring  the climate responsibilities of industrial meat and dairy producers.  We discuss:  The difference between guilt and shame Research about what works and doesn't when shaming our food choices The Netflix documentary Seaspiracy: who we shame and how The role of private corporations and challenging conventions of responsibility   Links:   Jennifer Jacquet (2015) - "Is Shame Necessary? New Uses for an Old Tool"  Lazarus, O., McDermid, S. & Jacquet, J. (2021) The climate responsibilities of industrial meat and dairy producers. Climatic Change 165, 30 Seaspiracy (2021) A Netflix Documentary  You may also like:   FFS 032 - The Last Acceptable Prejudice  FFS 026 - We Need To Talk About Monsanto  FFS 014 - Blue Is The New Green 

FFS 048 - Meat and Shame: an appetite for change

 From its more humble origins to its modern-day status as a dominant yet destructive wonderbean, the story of soy concerns us all.       Soy is much more than tofu or tempeh. It's a global commodity crop: the driving force of animal agriculture and a hidden fuel of growing importance for our cars.       In this episode, we deep dive with Dr. Christine M. Du Bois into the history of soy and the vital role it continues to play in our lives.       Christine M. Du Bois is a former co-manager of the Johns Hopkins Project on Soy. She is the author of The Story of Soy (2018) and Images of West Indian Immigrants in Mass Media: The Struggle for a Positive Ethnic Reputation (2004) and is the lead editor and coauthor of The World of Soy (2008). She has published poetry at BourgeonOnline.com. She lives in Pennsylvania.       We discuss:    How we use the modern soybean: ubiquitous yet unseen   The bean's Manchurian origins   The rise of the 'Cinderella crop'   Mass deforestation, billionaire Blairo Maggi and the ‘United Republic of Soy’   The role of China, geopolitics and the future of soy        Links:    The Story of Soy (2018)- Christine M. Du Bois   The World of Soy (2008) - Christine M. Du Bois, Chee-Beng Tan, Sidney Mintz (Eds.)   Rise of the 'wonder bean': from deforestation to your plate - The Guardian        You might also like:    FFS 039 - The Invisible ABCD Giants and the Financialisation of Food   FFS 027 - A World Without Chocolate   FFS 013 - How Plants Domesticated Humans    

FFS 047 - Soy: a destructive wonderbean

 The EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) has become Europe’s problem child.      Vested interests behind one of the Union’s oldest policies threaten to derail Europe’s ambitious new climate, biodiversity and food strategies.       In this episode, we deep dive into the controversial CAP - over €350 billion of taxpayer money spent on European farming - and discuss if there is still any hope in reforming a policy that continues to baffle and disappoint many of Europe’s citizens, farmers, and scientists.     We are joined by conservation biologist Dr. Guy Pe’er from the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) and Helmholtz-Centre for Environmental Research in Leipzig, Germany.       We discuss:    What the CAP is, including a brief history   What is happening in the negotiations and why the stakes are so high   A detailed step-by-step scientific critique of the current proposal   Debunking common claims made by politicians that the CAP is more ambitious, provides stability and ensures food security   How the power of lobbying and conflicts of interest shape the CAP   Different paths forward for policy makers and individuals        Links:        8 December 2020 - The EU Common Agricultural Policy and Sustainable Farming: A Statement by scientists   3 March 2020 - Common Agricultural Policy reform: More than 3600 researchers call for science to be taken into consideration   November 5 2019 - NYT Investigation "The Money Farmers: How Oligarchs and Populists Milk the E.U. for Millions"   You may also like:   FFS 044 - The Ground Zero Ingredient  FFS 041 - On the Front Lines of Food  FFS 028 - Money Well Spent? EU Farm Subsidies            

FFS 046 - Will the EU CAPitulate?

What is the future of protein, and of animal agriculture? Can we raise animals sustainably or should we move beyond meat? To feed a growing world population, we need protein. For many, protein means meat. As our reliance on animal products grows, so does its destructive impact on the natural world. Mass deforestation, biodiversity loss, and significant greenhouse gas emissions of livestock put our dietary habits into the spotlight. In this panel discussion, I am joined by Nathalie Rolland (Cellulaire Agriculture France & ProVeg), Andrew deCoriolis (Farm Forward) and Patrick Holden (Sustainable Food Trust). We discuss:  The current COVID-19 context and its impacts on food systems How sustainable are plant-based alternatives to meat? What is “Better meat” and where can we find it? Cellular agriculture: meat without slaughter? What could the future of food look like in 2050?  This episode is a recording of the live webinar “Protein in the 21st Century”, organised by The SASI Co., a global sustainability agency. Links:  Watch the full replay of the  webinar on Facebook Watch the full replay of the  webinar on The SASI Co. website Sustainable Food Trust website Farm Forward Website DefaultVeg Website Agriculture Cellulaire France Website ProVeg International Website  You might also like:   FFS 031 - Farmers Facing Brexit  FFS 022 - The Bird is the Word  FFS 012 - Cultured Meat: Looking beyond the hype with New Harvest 

FFS 009 - Stop Generalising GMOs

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