I found this tricky GMO quiz around the internet yesterday… And  I must say it proved to be faaar less easy than I had expected! Try it and see how much you know actually! 😉
AÂ very light weekend post coming here… about seeds again!
It’s a video from Lisbon from the Annual ESA (European Seed Association) meeting with Garlich Von Essen, Secretary Genereal of the association. The video is only 15 minutes long, but it gives a really nice peek into the current topics of European seed industry issues.
From neonics to Nagoya and to the European Seed magazine, we can hear about a lot of things… If you missed the meeting this year, these 15 mins will be definitely worth the time! 🙂 Enjoy 🙂
Dear all, The great news for today is that the blog is soon turning 1 year old! 🙂 In the past 12 months you could read 66 articles (67th coming here! 😀 ) about interesting Agri & Food topics. Thank you for the thousands of visitors from all over the World, I’m very grateful and happy for everybody coming here from time to time 😉 Let the enthusiasm run on, I hope we’ll have many similarly great years together!
Now check out the first short promo video that I made based on the 2 most-read articles so far… The ins and outs of olive oil production 🙂
In the recent weeks I have noticed a quite interesting tendency in nutrition and food marketing related news- companies started really focusing on the elderly.
The main focus of these articles is the different nutritional requirements of the elderly. Now companies try focusing on deeloping new products which are specially adapted to the needs of the aging people.
Personally, I believe that these efforts are justified to some extent. For example developing foods for old people with chewing or swallowing difficulties is reasonable and could be an actual solution to an actual problem. Also, a big part of aging people do not have a access to independent, factual information that tells them about their special nutritional needs. However, in my opinion, informing them should be the task of their doctors, families and communities. I do not think there is such a desperate need for immense amount of different new products- also beacuse their needs are really not too different from the needs of other adults. But obviously the interest of business is to exploit this segment- let us see how successfully.
Dear Foodies 🙂 I had a great food documentary experience a few days ago- namely I watched the movie ‘Forks over Knives‘. I must admit I’m pretty easily fascinated by shocking data about mankind especially if they are about nutrition… and this documentary is packed with those.
The basic idea is that we, human beings should pretty much avoid animal-based protein. Throughout the movie, highly respected doctors and scientists list the myriad of evidence from statistical and scientific research in order to prove: animal protein is BAD for us and we should all follow a plant-based diet. And I must say they do it really very efficiently, the message is clear and frightening.
I am very impressed by what I saw, however I must say the responses for the movie are quite divided. Some people are worshiping the plant-based diet, some of them say it’s a total fraud.
Obsiously we cannot know the real truth (which most probably does not exist), but what’s sure is that the USDA revises the dietary guidelines for Americans– and I am very curious how big and radical the changes would be… Honestly, I hope to see some moves towards a more balanced diet. Not only in the recommendations, but also in policy measures and eventually in everyday life.
Here is the trailer of the movie, I recommend it to everyone who’s interested in food documentaries, foody policy, nutrition and health in general- this is defintiely something that you should take into consideration.
Europe’s seed life is more hectic this year than generally I’d say… After the unusual fate of the European Commission Proposal for a Regulation on marketing of plant reproductive material, now Issues Ink and the European Seed Association (ESA) announced that they are about the issue the European Seed magazine. The first issue will be available from 12-14 October, the time of the European Seed Association Annual Meeting and European Seed Trade Meeting in Lisbon, Portugal.
The news have been published online recently, but it’s spreading fast… No wonder, as this magazine is going to be a unique source of information about seeds in Europe. Shawn Brook, the president of Issues Ink said- “The need for a communications channel, both digital and in print, that can offer critical sharing opportunities and unique content to the seed industry was made very clear as we talked to various stakeholders within Europe. “
On european-seed.com the introduction tells us about the topics to be expected. “With tailored, seed-focused content, European Seed will offer specialised media that will provide unparalleled value to the industry, our readers and our advertisers. Our content is comprised of far more than just articles: it’s a total package that fuses current issues with compelling analysis, in addition to an array of digital offerings that take our audience to the heart of the stories that matter.”
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Just to make this clear: Issues Ink has several media brands, such as the Seed World, American Seed, Germination and so on. Thus, it is only fitting that it was them to team up with ESA and numerous European seed stakeholders to create the European Seed.
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Honestly, I am super excited to see the first issue… But until then I keep wondering if the magazine manages to avoid the same problem as the Comission Proposal had… Namely, will they give enough space for the small ones to express themselves? Will they also write about the safeguarding of small producers, biodiversity, greening efforts and so on… ? As these topics are quite important and characteristic in Europe, I think they should be duly represented in order to keep the healthy balance and seed-peace in the continent, while providing stakeholders with trustworthy information and help the European seed industry rise.
Prescriptive planting is a revolutionary new technique in agricultural production. Developed by Monsanto and also DuPont Pioneer, this invention is claimed to boost maize yields from the current ~10 tons to ~12,5 tons per hectare- such a great increase last occurred with the introduction of GMO crops.
So what is the idea behind this cutting edge technology?
The introductory video of Monsanto’s FieldSripts explains it all: for the safest and most efficient production it is not enough to use the best genetics, it is also crucial to use the best machinery and identify the needs of the specific farm. For example, a certain variety might perform better in a certain field even though it is considered to be a less productive variety. Also, they need to take into consideration soil and climatic characteristics in order to find the best variety and plant population (number of plants per acre) for the most optimised performance.
These big companies use enormous amount of data (obtained e.g. through the purchase of data companies) in order to ‘prescribe’ the best solution for every farmer for every single part of the farm including plant population, correct plant spacing, hybrid choice and so on. Also, farmers need to give their own input: they must provide data such as field boundaries, yield data and fertility test results. Thus, Monsanto calculates the best solutions from the data in their possession.
The technology was already tested for a few years by Monsanto, and from this year it is available for purchase in four states of the USA. Those who tried FieldSripts say that it can boost the yield by up to 5%.
So the idea is clear and straightforward: By the help of a massive amount of soil, climate, etc. data (and an always expanding database) big seed companies aim to prescribe to farmers what to plant, how much to plant, how to plant etc. for the best results. The idea itself might not be bad in my opinion. Using real state-of-art science to exploit every little detail of nature, and mitigate the huge risk agricultural producers take every single year. However, the thing I do not really like is the fact that it is all about Monsanto and other big companies. From now on, if farmers want to follow the trend in maize production and stay profitable they have no choice but to get orders from Monsanto. They won’t need engineering skills anymore- Monsanto can give it all. They won’t be able to make their own free choice regarding the variety or machinery they use- it can be only Monsanto. They won’t be the only ones knowing everything about their own farm- Monsanto will know it as well.Â
Maybe I am a bit too European in this matter, but I truly think that giving so much power to only a few companies is limited and reckless and killing our own free choice is dangerous. Furthermore, losing our hard engineering skills makes us, producers, vulnerable.
I do not want to be dramatic though, these companies are not the ‘bad’ guys… However, I truly believe that farmers should keep an eye on their production themselves, exploit the oportunities that emerging technologies might offer, but not trust all their work blindly on one single entity.
News about so-called ‘genetically edited’ fruits has gone viral since Trends in Biotechnology mentioned them two days ago (13.08.2014.) (1,2,3,4,5)
The idea of ‘genetically edited’ is clear: due to the high social distrust and strict international regulations imposed on GM crops, biotechnology needed to come up with something more acceptable and natural-sounding. The point of this new technique is that (similarly to GM varieties) it is a fast way to genetically improve crops BUT without the introduction of foreign genes. Thus, scientists only change the information which is already in the genom. This has become possible because of the fast developments in the precise editing of genomes.
Scientists hope that this method is already acceptable for the general public and consumers would trust genetically edited fruits, such as ‘super bananas’, which produce Vitamine A. (More about the importance of this here.) Policymakers all over the world shall also reflect on these developments, as it is not clear whether this new method should be considered as  genetic modification or be subject to different rules.
In my opinion the term ‘genetically edited’ itself is still a bit too close to ‘genetically modified’ and ‘genetically engineered’, which both sound quite agressive and unnatural at least to my ears. I do not really see the reason why avarage consumers would show more trust and would be happier to eat these kind of fruits than the genetically modified ones, and I also don’t really understand how could it be possibly easier to proove these crops safe more easily. I believe that as long as these genetically engineered crops are not marketed and regulated somehow in a radically different way, their acceptance on the market won’t change considerably, no matter how peaceful the purpose of scientists is.
Which might or might not be a problem, depending on who we are asking.
Passion in Food and Field 