Talking Biotech with Dr. Kevin Folta

This week I had to address the elephant in the room. What’s up with the recent flack about Monsanto funding a science communication outreach program?What is happening with FOIA?  What is the future of the Talking Biotech science communication program? Yes, I actually went on a vacation-vacation, first time since April 2002. And it was in a place with no cell signal or internet access.# COLABRATalking Biotech is brought to you by Colabra – an R&D platform that brings your lab’s

This week’s podcast discusses Kevin Folta’s public records situation for 60 seconds.That is followed by a talk with Dr. Andrew McKemey from Oxitec in Oxford, England.  Oxitec has a technology that allows rearing of male mosquitoes that transmit a gene that disrupts offspring from developing.  This technology has been show to work field situations, providing potential solutions to mosquito-borne disease.  Dr. McKemey describes the technology and addresses ecological concerns.In the second

This week’s podcast is an important analysis of two published reports. First, the results from the famous Rothamstead wheat trial show that their transgene does not confer resistance to aphids, inconsistent with their laboratory findings.  While this outcome was considered to be a successful, reliable answer, it was billed as an abject failure on anti-biotech activist websites. Today we revisit the issues of publication and peer-review, and the story of the threats of vandalism against the

This Talking Biotech Podcast features Dr. William Powell from SUNY, where he is co-Director of the American Chestnut Research and Restoration Project.  The American Chestnut was a dominant forest tree in Appalachia until the late 1800’s when it was destroyed by disease. Dr. Powell’s project has used a transgenic approach to confer resistance to the disease, with the goal of repatriating the forest with this dominant tree species.  Dr. Richard Michelmore from UC-Davis talks about lettuce

Ag professionals know their businesses and on-farm practices better than anyone. However, they don’t tend to share their story in public space, allowing others (including unscrupulous hucksters and activists) to warp their reality.How do we get the real experts excited about communicating about new technology, and how it is used on the farm?  New innovations in crops and animals stand to improve productivity and quality of farm products, with benefits to farmers, the consumer and the

Salmon is an outstanding food for protein, and undeniably great table fare. The AquaBounty company has produced the AquaAdvantage salmon, a fish that grows to production size in less time. This means the same amount of healthy fish using less food, labor, water, and other limited resources. Dave Conley speaks about the salmon, how the trait works, it’s deregulation, and addresses questions about safety and containment.  The second part of the podcast visits with Professor Pat

This episode of Talking Biotech features stories of genetically engineered chickens that do not spread the avian influenza virus. This year over 45 million birds have died or have been euthanized because of illness from the avian flu. Prof. Helen Sang of the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh, Scotland is part of the research team that engineered chickens using a clever strategy– they can catch the virus and become ill, but they do not transmit it. She discusses the technology and its hurdles to