A Remarkable New Technology That Will Diminish A Global Cancer Threat

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The Food Waste Solution That You Might Not Know You Are Using

Do you buy bagged bread in the grocery store? There are usually several options including...

Yes, We May Have No Bananas, But Monoculture Wasn't So Easy To Avoid

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Nature: The Original Chemist

We frequently see a contrast drawn between what is “natural” and what is “chemical.” Sometimes...

Steve Savage

Trained as a plant pathologist (Ph.D. UC Davis 1982), I've worked now for >30 years in many aspects of agricultural technology (Colorado State Univ., DuPont, Mycogen, independent consultant).... Read More »

Five Ways That Farmers Control Pests Other Than With Pesticides

Dec 30 2013 | comment(s)

There are many pests in the world which attack plants or compete with them for the resources they need to grow. This is true for plants growing in natural stands, but also for the plants that people grow as crops. If pests are left unchecked, crop productivity is compromised.

Without good pest control, it would take a lot more land to feed humanity - land we simply don't have. Pest damage can also compromise the storage or shelf-life of foods leading to more wasteful inefficiencies. Pests can also make foods dangerous through the production of mycotoxins (see contaminated corn below)

What Trans-fats Should Teach Us About The Pitfalls Of Food Labeling

Nov 19 2013 | comment(s)

The People Side Of GMO Crops: Part I

Oct 08 2013 | comment(s)

As with any new technology, the development and commercialization of biotech crops is a story about people. Its a story about people with ideas and vision; people who did hard and creative work; people who took career or business risks, and people who integrated this new technology into the complex business of farming. By various artifacts of my educational and career path, I've been in a position to know many of these people as friends and colleagues over the last 36 years. Their story is important, but it tends to get lost in much of the conversation about biotech crops.

Why GMO Wine Grapes Would Be Cool

Sep 26 2013 | comment(s)

I am 99.9% sure that there will never be commercial production of genetically engineered wine grapes ("GMO" to use the common misnomer). Even so, I'd like to indulge in imagining what could be if we lived in some parallel universe where rational scientific thinking prevailed.

When A Genetic Solution Saved The French Wine Industry

Aug 28 2013 | comment(s)

When A New Technology Saved The French Wine Industry

Aug 22 2013 | comment(s)

Amy Harmon's excellent, recent article in the New York Times describes how the Florida orange juice industry may soon be wiped-out because of a new bacterial disease spread by an introduced insect. It looks like there could be a technology-fix for the problem using genetic engineering. The question is whether the growers will get to apply that solution.