A report on 21 years of GM corn data The first commercial production of GM corn was in the USA in 1995. In the subsequent 20+ years, the abundance of production data has provided the opportunity to begin to undertake a large meta-analysis of multiple publications. A meta-analysis takes the …
The need for organ transplants is growing at a rate that needs to be urgently addressed In 2016, 18 of every 100,000 Canadians needed an organ transplant. Of these 6,700 individuals, 260 died waiting for transplants, 409 withdrew from the list, 3,135 went into 2017 awaiting a transplant and 2,903 …
Is this a corruption of academic freedoms or simply how research is done in the 21st century? Many of the things you have done today have been made possible through innovation. Innovations have become crucial to our daily lives and will continue to improve our lives into the future. Innovations …
How USRTK is the Big Tobacco of the 21st Century In 1839, in the historical play Cardinal Richelieu, playwright Edward Bulwer-Lytton wrote that ‘the pen is mightier than the sword’. Since 2014, in both the US and Canada, the pen has been progressively attacked by the sword. Academic freedoms of …
When did it become okay for the media to be anti-science & anti-ag? A CBC news story over the weekend calls into question the research relationship between academics and industry. University of Saskatchewan professor Peter Phillips has had his reputation attacked by the CBC for email communications with his colleagues …
How conventional plant breeding has evolved in the digital age While I generally have a pretty decent memory, my recollections of high school biology in the early 1980s consists of trying to get a microscope to focus properly so that I could see an onion skin cell. Rarely could I …
How Consumers Benefit from GM Crops One criticism that is frequently levelled against GM crops and biotechnology, in general, is that there are no benefits available for consumers, which has resulted in some consumers choosing to reject this innovative and environmentally sustainable technology. This blanket ‘no benefit’ statement has no …
How good are Canadian Uni’s? Universities are known for the research undertaken by faculty and students. But how much of the research conducted by universities gets licensed to companies or ever reaches the public? This is important, as our universities are publicly funded. According to some studies Canada doesn’t rank …
Plant diseases having increasingly devastating effects In June I was fortunate enough to attend a captivatingly interesting conference organized by the University of Saskatchewan’s Global Institute for Food Security on how to improve global food security and the technologies required to accomplish this. Of the numerous speakers, one stood out …
Science is the standard that has been used for decades to find solutions, innovate and improve efficiencies, but increasingly, society is less certain about science and reassurances are sought through socio-economic assessments. There are two options to assess risks of new technologies and products: the first, to use strictly science-based …
