Vote for Biofortified!

Biofortified, the PandasThumb of crop engineering, is in a contest.

A contest to win an interview with Michael Pollan and grant money for educating the public about GMOs!

1. Biofortified assured me that the interview with Pollan will be ‘educational’. I dont think I can put into words how much I, personally, want to see Pollan grilled by some real scientists. Definitely worth a bit of obnoxious registering to vote.

2. Do you really want some anti-science, anti-GMO assholes getting $1500 to miseducate the public? Bleh its like the Discovery Institute winning $1500 to teach kids about SCIENCE! God… Im going to puke just thinking about that… Again, totally worth the obnoxious registering to vote for a pro-science group.

3. One of Biofortifieds contributors is a new SciBlogger, Pamela, at Tomorrows Table. I also suggested Anastasia and Karl to the SciBlog overlords MONTHS ago. *FROWNY FACE* *kicks overlords in the crotch*

4. If those reasons dont convince you, I can only say,

DOO EEEEEET FOR THE PAPAYAS!!!!

5. If you are still feeling a bit anti-science and queasy over GMOs, check out the rational comments made by the Biofortified contributors at the contest website, and contrast that with the sheer level of CRAZY coming from their anti-all-GMO rivals. Its comparable to the level of stupid/insanity we get from anti-vaxers, for real. Bleg.

Biofortified deserves the win– take a minute to vote!

Comments

#1 Jim H.
October 26, 2009

Voted! And commented. Do I win bonus points?
#2 Jerry Coyne
October 26, 2009

I’m curious: why do you want to see Pollan grilled by some “real scientists”?
#3 Thanny
October 26, 2009

I think perhaps the biggest obstacle to deep-sixing this GMO insanity is the notion so many people have that there’s such a thing as a “fish gene” (for anti-freeze, say), which can only unnaturally be placed in a plant.

If we could educate these people that genes are genes are genes, and that fish and plants already share tons of them, it might get rid of that ick factor, which seems to be the target of all those lies and distortions used to scare people away.

Maybe, too, they could learn that we humans have been genetically engineering plants and animals for millennia, only doing it the slow way through selective breeding.
#4 Mary
October 26, 2009

I voted too! For the papayas….

I was at the ASHG meeting in Hawaii last week and smiled at the opportunity to eat the papayas on the breakfast buffet. I checked their skin: no virus! Woot!

But do vote for Biofortified. Karl has been working really hard at being a terrific communicator for science and should be rewarded for that.
#5 Anastasia
October 26, 2009

Thanks for your support! We are currently in the lead, but our opponents may yet pull ahead.

Along with your votes, I hope you’ll consider contributing a post or two (or more!) to Biofortified as well. We’re always looking for more writers to help present the science.
#6 Prometheus
October 26, 2009

I will vote for Anastasia, her agrominions and their efforts to pervert the simple gifts of our ever lovin’ lord into corn demons at the direction of the Monsantichrist.

Least I can do really.

Thanny at #3

“I think perhaps the biggest obstacle to deep-sixing this GMO insanity is the notion so many people have that there’s such a thing as a “fish gene” (for anti-freeze, say), which can only unnaturally be placed in a plant.”

Why do you sadists need to crush my hopes for a cold resistant coelacantalope that can withstand 15 atmospheres and grow in the dark? Why God why?
#7 ERV
October 26, 2009

to webmaster@gmwatch.org
date Mon, Oct 26, 2009
subject Regarding “Fixing the competition!”

‘Fixing a contest’ means that the contest is rigged to favor a particular participant.

The contest appears to be free and open to anyone voting, and there dont appear to be any voting irregularities (ie, “I voted, but the vote count isnt going up!”).

So do you have any evidence that the members of Biofortified or Ashoka are fixing this contest, or are you just slandering these individuals, on the internet, for fun?

– Abbie, ERV, BIG PHARMA SHILL INFECTING PEOPLE WITH HIV OMGOMGOMG
http://scienceblogs.com/erv/

Response:

This is an automatically generated Delivery Status Notification

Delivery to the following recipient failed permanently:

webmaster@gmwatch.org

Technical details of permanent failure:
Google tried to deliver your message, but it was rejected by the recipient domain. We recommend contacting the other email provider for further information about the cause of this error. The error that the other server returned was: 550 550 5.1.1 Invalid Mailbox (state 14).

VOTE FOR BIOFORTIFIED!!!!!
#8 jack
October 26, 2009

Thanks for posting this — voted, and now I have another blog to add to my reading list. That’s better than a pat on the back. Heck, it’s even better than a cookie.
#9 ERV
October 26, 2009

Jerry– ‘Food Inc’ was complete shit. Pretentious, fart-sniffing shit. And Pollans name is on it.

He needs to step up to the plate and show he can have a cognizant conversation with real scientists on the topic of ‘food’, GMOs in particular, or fuck off and go be king of the organic nutbars.

I still get angry thinking about ‘Food Inc’, and not in the way its creators intended.
#10 Optimus Primate
October 26, 2009

Voted, and added a new blag to my reader. Thanks, Abbie!
#11 Karl Haro von Mogel
October 26, 2009

Thanks, Abbie, for giving us a plug and sending some of your readers to help us out! We’re doing really well and I hope that this trend continues through Wednesday. Let’s top 1000 votes!

I also just wanted to point out that GM Watch didn’t accuse us directly of fixing the contest, nor changemakers, either. But they did accuse the ‘biotech industry’ of fixing it, and then trying to tie us to them.
http://www.gmwatch.org/latest-listing/1-news-items/11620-fixing-the-competition
Still dishonest and desperate, but I’m afraid it backfired. PZ wrote a second post pointing out their inanity and it just resulted in more attention and more votes!
#12 Pam ronald
October 26, 2009

Thanks for the plug ERV. I enjoyed your papaya post
karl and Anastasia have created a grat blog where polite and informed debate can occur
vote biofortified
#13 Shirakawasuna
October 26, 2009

The thumbs up button won’t appear for me
#14 ERV
October 26, 2009

Pam– No problem! I like you guys!

Shirakawasuna– Try copy/pasting their link exactly:

http://www.changemakers.com/en-us/node/55404

I cant get the thumbs to show up any other way, for any of them. Ive had to get vote updates at Pharyngula, cause I cant see the thumbs either.
#15 foxfire
October 26, 2009

I don’t know why people are so hysterical about GMOs. Ditto the nonsense about vaccines. Yet these same people go praise some guy who dropped a molecule of something in a gallon of water (or yammered to some sky fairy) and now the world can be healed. Gimme a break.

A caveat on the above statement: I would be concerned about anything developed without appropriate rules for testing – Given the proclivity of an unrestricted free market to fuck over its customers and corporate stockholders (see Bernie Madoff, hedge funds, current economic crisis, etc).

Anyway, two reasons for posting:
1. I voted
2. Thank you Abby for a link to a cool new blog for me. The Biofortified article about inserting calcium into carrots and lettuce, which can be easily absorbed into into the body, was fascinating!
#16 Stephen Bahl
October 27, 2009

Voted. Oh and echoing foxfire’s post: thanks for linking to a cool new (to me) blog.

Also, when can I expect the check from my new masters at Monsanto? You know, the one signed in the tears of lost children. They do that, right? I think that’s how it works…
#17 Shirakawasuna
October 27, 2009

Woo, that link worked! Their site is very poorly-organized…
#18 Militant Agnostic
October 27, 2009

I found about this via Orac and I voted, but it took some blundering around. Abby, what marinade would you prefer for grilling Michael Pollan?
#19 Karl Haro von Mogel
October 28, 2009

I make a mean barbecue sauce out of my own honey…
#20 Evan
October 28, 2009

@foxfire:

Please don’t lump those of us with concerns about GMOs with the vaccine-deniers and homeopaths. My concerns are much like yours – ones of oversight and unintended consequences.
#21 Prometheus
October 28, 2009

Evan@#20

I understand why anti-vax and homeopath are clubs you don’t want to join.

But as regards oversight and unintended consequences, we are starting to hit a wall as far as what is possible with half a million folks wearing functioning transgenic heart valves and another million wanting them. There are six and a half million people in and around Somalia who are very concerned with the North American yield this year.

I hope you can understand why the wait and see objections are wearing thin at the elbows..

oversight

Three different federal agencies have regulated and promulgated testing requirements for all transgenic products in the United States for 25 years which are then subject to conformance with the statutory, regulatory and recommendation hedge mazes of the EU, ITCSD and WTO because without projected export values the R&D shuts down.

The process by which a transgenic medical or agricultural product is introduced to the market is a process much more actively, directly and on-goingly overseen than the disposal of radioactive medical waste.

unintended consequences.

The impact of transgenesis can be seen in a way that predates, in most cases, its availability. Bt potatoes and Bt cotton are still under assault since their introduction despite 15 years of international study demonstrating no deleterious effect (even to insect diversity) and higher crop yields. Objections persist despite there being no adverse consequences from the use of the bacillus itself as an insecticide for nearly a century. When every conceivable consequence is asked and answered, obscure contorted aesthetics and baseless sociological pronouncements have formed a justification for attack.