Pamela Ronald is Professor of Plant Pathology at the University of
California, Davis, where she studies the role that genes play in a
plant's response to its environment. Her laboratory has genetically
engineered rice for resistance to diseases and flooding,
both of which are serious problems of rice crops in Asia and Africa.
She also serves as Vice President for the Feedstocks Division and
Director of Grass Genetics at the Joint Bioenergy Institute. Ronald is co-author with her husband, an organic farmer, of "Tomorrow's Table: Organic Farming, Genetic and the Future of Food".
For Ronald interviews, lectures and profiles click here.
"Here's a persuasive case that, far from contradictory, the merging of genetic engineering and organic farming offers our best shot at truly sustainable agriculture"-- Stewart Brand, creator of the Whole Earth Catalog
"Whether you ultimately agree with it or not, Tomorrow's Table bring a fresh approach to the debate over transgenic crops."-- Michael Pollan, author of In Defense of Food and The Omnivore's Dilemma
"The noteworthy aspect of the book is the way they then marry their separate fields to argue logically for the use of GM technologies to improve organic agriculture." -- Science magazine
"Brilliant... the best book I have ever read about the ways in which genetically engineered and organic food relate to each other and society." -- Michael Specter, Staff writer for The New Yorker
"A unique, personal perspective ... Highly recommended." -- Peter H. Raven, President, Missouri Botanical Garden
"A tale of the passions of an organic farmer and a plant genetic scientis...a source of inspiration." -- Sir Gordon Conway KCMG FRS, Professor of International Development, Centre for Environmental Policy, Imperial College, London, and past President of the Rockefeller Foundation
"Simply one of the best scientific presentations of organic agriculture I have read in that it is soundly grounded in the literature and does not over-reach, while remaining staunchly and reasonably pro-organic." -- Phil Stewart
"This wildly eccentric book juxtaposes deep scientific analysis of genetically engineered agriculture with recipes for such homey kitchen staples as cornbread and chocolate chip cookies." -- Booklist
Tomorrow's Table in the classroom at Oregon State University:
"I really enjoyed the book. It did a great job of keeping everything in perspective. Use again!"
"Use again! A great resource and easy to understand"
"The textbook was great. It had a story line to it. It was easy to remember."
"Tomorrow´s Table, una búsqueda de la verdad sobre la agricultura orgánica y la modificación genética" -- Antama Fundacion
Article, The New Organic in The Boston Globe
Article, Making Rice Disease-Resistant in Scientific American
At the risk of offending half of the human race, I will say this: Men have no manners when it comes to cell phones.
I am traveling this week with plenty of time to pay attention to strangers, not that I have much of a choice. In the airport, men have cell phones pressed to their ears relaying critical information to their business partners such as "HI! I JUST LEFT YOU AN EMAIL AND A VOICE MAIL ABOUT THE DEAL THAT I HOPE TO DO IN THE NEXT 10 YEARS. I HOPE YOU GOT MY MESSAGE, I WILL CALL AGAIN BEFORE THE PLANE LEAVES AND AGAIN WHEN IT LANDS TO BE SURE YOU GOT MY MESSAGE."
And today in an elegant, quiet restaurant where everyone is conversing in hushed tones and his table mate is fussing with the newspaper, clearly uncomfortable. "MY PLANE WAS CANCELLED AND SO I AM SITTING HERE WONDERING WHERE I CAN WATCH THE SUPER BOWL. WHAT ARE YOU PLANNING TO EAT? THAT OAXCAN GUACAMOLE WAS REALLY GOOD LAST YEAR I THINK YOU SHOULD SERVE IT AGAIN. AND IF YOU DO, WOULD YOU SAVE SOME FOR ME? LIKE I SAID I AM STUCK IN WASHINGTON AND AM WONDERING WHERE I CAN WATCH THE SUPER BOWL."
I could go on. But wont. I will just say that the only woman I saw use her cell phone in a public place this entire trip, whispered so quietly and quickly that I, sitting right next to her, heard nothing.
So here is a question for you:
Are men more ill-mannered than women when it comes to cell phone use?
Hunkered down in an elegant hotel in Washington DC, watching the epic storm continue unabated, I cannot help but think of award winning author Kim Stanley Robinson's "Fifty Degrees Below", the second novel in his three-part trilogy.
Applications for the UK awards opened yesterday for the 2010 awards, where four women will be awarded a £15,000 fellowship to help with the scientific research. The awards are now in their 12th Entries can be made online, with an awards ceremony held in June.
The L'Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science awards were the first international scientific awards dedicated to women and have become an international reference of scientific distinction - with two of the 2008 winners, Professor Ada Yonath and Professor Elizabeth Blackburn, going on to win Nobel Prizes in Chemistry and Medicine respectively (2009).
If you are interested in hearing more about the awards, here is the video of last year's event.
Roger Beachy has been attacked by some who feel that his willingness to fund work at his non-profit institute with Monsanto money will bias his work as director of NIFA.
John Tierney does not think so. Read his opinion piece
Read Emily Waltz' interview with Roger Beachy, the new director for the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), the new research funding arm of the US Department of Agriculture (USDA).
What does Beachy's appoinment mean for researchers, farmers and consumers?
Larger, longer grants with more money for education or extension, so the knowledge can reach from the lab to the food to the fork; a stonger focus on sustinable approaches; and a regulatory stucture that is science based
We need to build enhanced capacity in the US to address urgent agricultural challenges such as sustainable food production and nutrition, readiness for climate aberrations that will impact productivity and developing renewable options like biofuels and industrial and pharmaceutical materials. To address these challenges, Beachy will create sub-institutional structures within NIFA. One of the institutes would address biofuels, climate and environment; another would address food safety and nutrition; a third would address food production and sustainability; and a fourth institute would focus on youth, families and communities.
In terms of biotech crops, Bechy says, "I think it's important that we stop talking only about risks and talk more about risk-benefit analyses."
"Eating with the fullest pleasure- pleasure, that is, that does not depend on ignorance- is perhaps the profoundest enactment of our connection with the world".
"Whether it's the science to slow global warming; the technology to protect our troops and confront bioterror and weapons of mass destruction; the research to find life-saving cures; or the innovations to remake our industries and create twenty-first century jobs--today, more than ever before, science holds the key to our survival as a planet and our security and prosperity as a nation." - President Barack Obama
At a time when our nation and our planet face unprecedented challenges, the sciences have a more important role to play in society than ever before. Yet today surprisingly few working scientists and researchers become visible, actively engaged public leaders.
This lack of visible scientific leaders has real consequences. Without them, science's influence is diminished in public debate. Well-funded special interests can create the appearance of facts where they do not exist, and controversy where there is little or no actual debate. The truth can become politicized, and public action on vital issues stalled. And scientists themselves can miss out on opportunities to form new kinds of interdisciplinary collaborations and relationships that can enrich their work and ideas.
The reasons for the science leadership gap are complex: few scientists receive formal communications, public engagement and leadership training; an 'anti-popularizer' bias in many academic departments discourages scientists from engaging the public; and most working scientists lack a network of relationships with the media and peers who can help them overcome obstacles, and who can support them in becoming public advocates for their fields.
The PopTech Science and Public Leadership Fellows Program aims to address these issues by developing a corps of highly visible and socially engaged scientific leaders who embody science as an essential way of thinking, discovering, understanding and deciding.
Many of the speakers offered a simple solution to feeding the world in the face of a population that is expected to grow to 9.2 billion by the year 2050: Eat local.
But how much impact will the "locavore" movement really have on sustainable food production?
In an interview with The Times, Gordon Conway, Professor of International Development at Imperial College London and a former government adviser said that the ban on organic farmers using GM crops was based on an excessively rigid rejection of synthetic approaches to farming and a misconception that natural ways were safer and more environment- friendly than man-made ones.
Pamela Ronald is Professor of Plant Pathology at the 
Roger Beachy has been attacked by some who feel that his willingness to fund work at his non-profit institute with Monsanto money will bias his work as director of NIFA. 
