GM Agriculture and Food Security: Fears and Facts Have you found yourself questioning something you’ve seen in the mainstream or social media about our food production? I suspect most of us have at some point been uncertain by what the media presents us with. I personally see ‘information’ that isn’t Read more…
48 Years of Innovation Success Founded in 1971, the University of Saskatchewan’s Crop Development Centre (CDC) focuses on research and development of new crop varieties. Over the years the varieties have expanded to include: spring wheat, durum wheat, canary seed, barley, oats, flax, field peas, lentils, chickpeas, faba beans and Read more…
The skyrocketing cost of science and academic journal open access fees In the past month, I’ve been fortunate to have two articles accepted for journal publication. Publishing research is the key component of my academic work and research. While I am thrilled to have had two articles accepted for publication, Read more…
Consumer perspectives and awareness about how risks are assessed and managed Food and the safety of our food are of the utmost importance to people, or so we thought. In recent research undertaken by my summer student Claire, it appears that the majority of Canadians aren’t all that worried about Read more…
EU animal feed import demands pressures crop producing nations European based environmental organizations were some of the first organizations to publicly advocate against the commercial introduction of genetically modified (GM) crops over 20 years ago. Since this time, these environmental groups have intensively lobbied to have GM crop production banned Read more…
Kicking off the new academic year As summer slides into fall, the hallways once again filled with excitement and enthusiast chatter of returning students. While the excitement is more likely a result of friends reuniting and reminiscing rather than the commencement of new classes, it’s still a welcome sound. Although Read more…
From June 4-7, 130 people from academia (including myself), government and industry, convened in Ravello, Italy, to share, listen and discuss the latest research on the bioeconomy and biotechnology at the ICABR conference. With over 60 paper presentations, 3 keynote speaker presentations, and multiple plenary and panel discussions far more Read more…
Greenpeace forced to pay over $250,000 Greenpeace was founded in Canada in 1971, with an objective of using science to support and advance environmental causes and policies. Greenpeace Canada states their value is to use “non-violent creative action to pave the way towards a greener, more peaceful world, and to Read more…
Safe foods and technologies no longer reaching some markets Risk is an odd thing in modern societies. Most of us prefer to avoid risk, yet we all do risky things every day. We drive, we smoke, we drink, we buy lotto tickets. So, why is it that our practices don’t Read more…
Numerous other consumer benefits expected Over the past three years, my research team has been surveying an international panel of experts about genome editing. This panel of experts consists of over 700 experts from around the world which include plant breeders, regulators and corporate regulatory officials. Since we began, we Read more…