BSR-logo-01
Biosciene Resource Project Logo

“Our mission is to provide the highest quality scientific information and analysis to enable a healthy food system and a healthy world”

The Bioscience Resource Project provides scientific and intellectual resources for a healthy future. It publishes Independent Science News, a media service devoted to food and agriculture, and their impacts on health and the environment. It also offers resources for scientists and educators and internships and training for students. Through its innovative scientific journalism and original biosafety review articles, the project provides unique and revealing perspectives on issues that are fundamental to the survival of people and the planet. The project does not accept advertising or corporate funding and is a non-profit 501(c)3 organization. It is completely dependent on individual donations.We invite you to join the Project as a contributor or a donor.

Bioscience Resource Project News and Views

Stuffed or Starved? Evolutionary Plant Breeding Might Have the Answer

Jun 18, 2018 |

Published on Monday, 11th June 2018 by  Independent Science News: “Stuffed or Starved? Evolutionary Plant Breeding Might Have the Answer“, written by Salvatore Ceccarelli, PhD.
Synopsis: At a time of growing uniformity in agriculture and of rising rates of illness in the population, evolutionary plant breeding proposes something radically different. It leads to crop varieties (actually populations) that are healthful, diverse, locally adapted, and controlled by the farmer. The results represent a promising way to combine food security, food safety, climate adaptability and farmer income at the same time. However, evolutionary breeding faces legal and institutional barriers.
Salvatore Ceccarelli is an evolutionary and participatory plant breeder based in Ascoli Piceno (Italy).
Share

GMO Golden Rice Offers No Nutritional Benefits Says FDA

Jun 4, 2018 |

The article “GMO Golden Rice Offers No Nutritional Benefits Says FDA” was published today (Mon 4th June 2018) on Independent Science News. It was written by Allison Wilson, PhD and Jonathan Latham, PhD.
Synopsis: We have previously reported on the difficulties experienced by the Gates-funded Golden Rice project in producing a GMO Golden Rice with adequate yield and agronomic properties. Nevertheless, as widely reported, a version of Golden Rice has recently been permitted for importation by Canada, Australia/New Zealand and now the US. Altogether unnoticed, however, is that the version of Golden Rice approved, called GR2E, contains very little of the key ingredient, beta-carotene. Worse, even the little that it does contain rapidly degrades during storage. For these reasons, FDA has told its developer (the International Rice Research Institute) that no health claims may be based on it. All-told, it seems that the trade-off experienced by the Golden Rice project between beta-carotene production and yield in its various GMO rices has not been resolved.
MORE ON GOLDEN RICE on Independent Science News:
The previous version of GR2 failed due to unintended effects from the modification process and the mis-expressed transgene:
Excellent article about the GR failures and the many Golden Rice implementation challenges:
Analysis by a Vitamin A nutrition expert on why Golden Rice is poor solution — even assuming a high yielding, high-beta-carotene version were possible:
Share

Author Philip Ackerman-Leist Speaking in the Ithaca Area on the 14th, 15th and 16th of May

Apr 28, 2018 |

Author and professor Philip Ackerman-Leist tells the (pre)cautionary tale of how the Italian town of Mals set a global precedent by passing the world’s first municipal referendum and ordinances to ban all synthetic pesticides. At the same time the region will support the transition of all farmers to organic systems and support new local sustainable business ventures. A Precautionary Tale: How One Small Town Banned Pesticides, Preserved Its Food Heritage, and Inspired a Movement shows how towns and regions can reclaim and protect their communities, health, and economy — by supporting a transition to diversified, small-scale organic systems and small-scale local businesses. Featuring multimedia artist Douglas Gayeton’s “information artworks,” Ackerman-Leist’s presentation is accompanied by a pop up art show.

All three events are Free & open to the public.

The Ovid Firehouse, Ovid, NY
Monday, May 14th at 7pm

Buffalo Street Books, Ithaca, NY
Tuesday, May 15th at 5pm

Mann Library Room 102, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
Wednesday, May 16th at 4:00pm

Philip Ackerman-Leist is a professor at Green Mountain College, where he established the farm and sustainable agriculture curriculum, directs the Farm & Food Project, and founded and directs the Masters in Sustainable Food Systems program (the nation’s first online graduate program in food systems). He is the author of Rebuilding the Foodshed: How to Create Local, Sustainable, and Secure Food Systems (2013) and Up Tunket Road: The Education of a Modern Homesteader (2009). His latest book is A Precautionary Tale: How One Small Town Banned Pesticides, Preserved Its Food Heritage, and Inspired a Movement

Want to know more or can’t make the talk? Read a review of A Precautionary Tale at: https://www.independentsciencenews.org/health/a-precautionary-tale-how-one-small-town-banned-pesticides/

For questions or if you would like to meet Philip Ackerman-Leist during his Ithaca visit, contact us at: https://bioscienceresource.org/contact-us/

 

 

 

Share

Life Beyond Genetics: Science and Power in the 21st Century: Talk by Jonathan Latham, PhD at Cornell University

Mar 16, 2018 | ,

Jonathan Latham will be speaking on March 22, 2018 at 7pm in Rockefeller Hall, Room 102, on the Cornell University Campus. The talk is free and open to the public. It is the first of the PEACE Talks series, sponsored by the Cornell Students for Animal Rights.

You can download a poster here: https://bioscienceresource.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/JRL-Peace-Talk-Poster.jpeg

Talk synopsis: The starting point for the talk will be the assertion that there is a key unappreciated distinction between Indigenous and Western thought and this distinction is the latters’ preoccupation with genetics. The genetic determinist orientation of Western thought grew out of the sedentist desire to inherit wealth and land in the fertile crescent. This desire developed into an obsession with genetics and lineage—which is very evident in the bible—to become a key attribute of the Judaeo-Christian religion. It was Plato’s “myth of the metals” incorporated into a religion, with all the disempowerment of the populace that that concept entails. Genetics was a key element to the spread of Christianity through Europe and elsewhere because genetic concepts enabled authoritarian political systems based on monarchy, patriarchy, nationalism, racism, as well as the inheritance of wealth, since each of these elements is premised on it. Much later, this same hereditarian fixation became transmuted into a scientific one. Most importantly however, the modern science of genetics is hardly more based on evidence than was its religious counterpart. In the final analysis, all organisms are systems. Organisms are thus not the product of genetic programmes and neither are genes master molecules. Therefore, it follows that science appropriated genetic theories of biological reproduction not because of evidence but for the reason that genetic premises were already so deeply ingrained in Western thought and Western power structures as to be unchallengeable. This thesis has important implications. First, that genetic determinism is the unappreciated driver behind much of modern political power and oppression. And second, since its premise is now readily disprovable, its disproof offers a potential route to redistributing social and political power.

You can download a poster of all the PEACE Talks here: https://bioscienceresource.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Main-Poster.jpg

Share

EU’s GMO Regulator Ignored Human Health Warnings Over a Monsanto Insecticidal Corn

Mar 5, 2018 |

Published today, Monday March 5th, 2018, by Independent Science News: “EU’s GMO Regulator Ignored Human Health Warnings Over a Monsanto Insecticidal Corn.” This new article was written by Claire Robinson, editor of GMWatch.
Synopsis: The central regulator of GMOs in Europe is the GMO Panel of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). EFSA is required to consult with member states over its evaluations. In the case of MON89034, an insecticidal GMO maize containing a Cry toxin, EFSA received numerous warnings from member states over its interpretation of rat experiments. In these experiments, animals fed the insecticidal Bt maize developed kidney and bladder problems.
Note: The trade name of GM event Mon89034 is YieldGard™ VT Pro™; it is found in products such as Genuity® VT Double Pro™ and Genuity® VT Triple Pro™.
Share

A Precautionary Tale: How One Small Town Banned Pesticides, Preserved Its Food Heritage, and Inspired a Movement

Feb 19, 2018 |

Published Monday 19th February 2018 in Independent Science News:

A Precautionary Tale: How One Small Town Banned Pesticides, Preserved Its Food Heritage, and Inspired a Movement by Philip Ackerman-Leist.

A book review by Allison Wilson, PhD, Science Director, The Bioscience Resource Project

Synopsis: The Tyrolean commercial apple industry had begun to expand into the mountain community of Mals, Italy. Two experimental orchards had already been planted to test which varieties best suited the area. More ominously, pesticide drift from its industrial apple farms had been detected at high levels in the area’s schoolyards and on the produce of organic farms. The citizens of Mals realized they needed to act fast if they wanted to pursue their vision of a diversified and sustainable local economy. The story of Mals and its subsequent historic referendum to ban all pesticides in the municipality, and therefore bar “Big Apple”, is the perfect counterpoint to the unfolding drama of the Dicamba drift catastrophe in the U.S. midwest. Philip Ackerman-Leist’s important new book could not have come at a better time.

Mals stands out as a community that decided to create toxic-free food and agriculture systems through real democracy, democracy based on the active participation of citizens. Read the story of Mals to get inspired. And act.

~Dr. Vandana Shiva (Foreward to A Precautionary Tale).

To read the full book review go to: https://www.independentsciencenews.org/health/a-precautionary-tale-how-one-small-town-banned-pesticides/

 

Share
Donate button

Sign up to our mailing list

E-mail address :
Name (optional):

Document Leaks

Exposing the Toxic Secrets of Corporations and Regulators

Quote of the day

Leaders who do not act dialogically, but insist on imposing their decisions, do not organize the people–they manipulate them. They do not liberate, nor are they liberated: they oppress.

- Paulo Freire

Our latest video

How the Evolution of Novel COVID-19 Variants Validates the Mojiang Miners Passage theory.

  • Recommended websites
    • AGRA Watch
      AGRA Watch monitors and questions the Gates Foundation's participation in the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA).
    • Agroecology Now!
      Agroecology Now! is a research, action and communications project convened by the Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience that focuses on understanding and supporting the societal transformations necessary to enable agroecology as a model for sustain
    • Campaign for Real Farming
      “Farming that is expressly designed to feed people without wrecking the rest of the world”
    • Center for Health, Environment & Justice
    • Community Seed Network
      The Community Seed Network connects and supports community seed initiatives by providing resources, information, and a platform for networking.
    • Downwinders At Risk
      Cleaner Air Through Citizen Action: Downwinders at Risk believes that environmental protection is a Do-It-Yourself proposition, and that effective community organizing is the key to providing it.
    • Eco Ruralis Romania
      Eco Ruralis is a grassroots association made up of small organic and traditional farmers. Supports collection and use of traditional seeds, WWOOF Romania. Documents land grabs and aids farmers affected by shale gas extraction.
    • Ending Corporate Governance
      Information and insights on how people can regain control over their government.
    • Family Farm Defenders
    • Food First
      The Institute for Food and Development Policy/Food First analyzes the root causes of global hunger, poverty, and ecological degradation and develops solutions in partnership with movements working for social change.
    • Food Sleuth Blog and Radio
      ... Helping people think beyond their plates ... *Critical Thinking for Food System Literacy*
    • GM WATCH
      Latest News and Comment on GM Foods and Crops
    • GMOSCIENCE
      We are physicians, biochemists, plant geneticists, and other scientists joined in a commitment to provide a public platform where genetically engineered (GE) crop and food impacts are openly discussed and thoughtfully analyzed.
    • Health News Review.Org
      Independent Expert Reviews of News Stories
    • Innovative Farmers
    • Local Futures: Economics of Happiness
      Local Futures’ mission is to protect and renew ecological and social well being by promoting a systemic shift away from economic globalization towards localization. Through its “education for action” programs, Local Futures develops innovative models and
    • Mad in America
      Science, Psychiatry and Community
    • Oakland Institute
      he Oakland Institute is an independent policy think tank, bringing fresh ideas and bold action to the most pressing social, economic, and environmental issues of our time.
    • Organic Consumers Association
      Campaigning for Health, Justice, Sustainability, Peace, and Democracy
    • Protecting Organic Farms From Energy Infrastructure (Pipelines)
      The routing and siting of MPL's MinnCan crude oil pipeline project provides a case study to assist in protecting organic farms from energy infrastructure. Affidavits and a highly detailed organic management plan established that the Diffley's Gardens of E
    • PSE - Physicians, Scientists, and Engineers for Healthy Energy
      PSE is dedicated to supplying objective, evidence-based, scientific information and resources on unconventional gas development (high-volume hydrofracking), other novel energy production methods, and energy use by society. PSE's mission is to bring transp
    • RADICALSTATISTICS
      RadStats: Social problems should not be disguised by technical language.
    • Real Organic Project
      Feed the Soil, Feed the Planet. Our mission is to grow people’s understanding of foundational organic values and practices. Our first goal is to create an add-on label to USDA certified organic to provide more transparency on organic farming practices.
    • Setting an Anti-Racist Table
      Links to Organizations and Conferences, Papers and Articles about racism, food, farming and fairness
    • Small Planet Institute
      Living democracy, feeding hope -- food myth busters
    • TestBiotech
      Institute for Independent Impact Assessment in Biotechnology
    • The African Centre for Biodiversity (ACB)
      ABC is a research and advocacy organisation working towards food sovereignty and agro-ecology in Africa, with a focus on biosafety, seed systems and agricultural biodiversity. The organisation is committed to dismantling inequalities.
    • Tribe of Heart
      Inspired by the words and deeds of social justice visionaries of past eras, we create documentary films, educational web sites, critical thinking essays, teaching presentations and grassroots advocacy programs that expose hidden injustices, awaken compass
    • TWN Third World Network
      Third World Network (TWN) is an independent non-profit international research and advocacy organisation involved in issues relating to development, developing countries and North-South affairs.
    • Volatility: Series on Food Sovereignty
      Working out the way forward to a just and sustainable future
    • War On Want
      Fighting Global Poverty (And Promoting Food Sovereignty)

Share
Share