You’ve probably seen Burger King’s latest marketing video featuring Wal-Mart yodeler Mason Ramsey singing about methane emissions from cow farts and burps. The ad promotes Burger King’s “Cows Menu” consisting of beef from cows fed lemon-grass leaves, which some research suggests decreases methane emissions. I must admit, the song is Read more…
By Carrie Rode, University of Saskatchewan Student Change of views With the push to become more sustainable, society has brought forward the issue of single-use plastics. Single-use plastics are items that are used only once and then are discarded; they include straws, bags, bottles, food packaging and more. In Canada Read more…
Are GM Crops Contributing to Increased Rates of Female Education? The number one item on the United Nations’ (UN) list of Sustainable Development Goals is to reduce poverty. The UN estimates that 650 million people live in extreme poverty, surviving on less than US$2/day. People in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are Read more…
Proud of a simple idea 5 years later turning into SAIFood success When I began my Research Chair in Agri-Food Innovation back in October 2014, one objective was to establish a blog that would facilitate the communication of scientific information about agriculture and food production. After some deliberating about titles Read more…
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…
Agricultural biotech may still be relatively small globally, but it is mighty Biotech, we hear about it frequently, but what really is it? The Webster Dictionary defines biotechnology as the manipulation of living organisms (or component one) to produce a new product (often for commercial uses). There are different streams Read more…
This blog is based on the ‘Governance of Digital Sequence Information and Impacts for Access and Benefit Sharing’ technical report which you can find here. Digital Sequence Information (DSI) How do you design an access and benefit sharing (ABS) system that benefits both providers and users of plant genetic resources Read more…
Establishing DivSeek to drive innovation collaborations Problems with the provision of food are an annual occurrence, at multiple locations across the globe. On any given day, it’s estimated that 800 million individuals are food insecure. Fortunately, many scientists have been working hard to find new ways of increasing food security, Read more…
Being indoors doesn’t mean you’re safe from air pollution. Canadian’s spending 90% of their time indoor, which means indoor air quality should be a growing concern for us Canadian. Being indoors so much exposes ourselves to volatile organic carcinogens (VOCs) like chloroform and benzene, which can have negative effects on our health. Research has recently genetically modified an ivy plant to help reduce such VOC exposure, yet its a long way from being your future houseplant.
The conflict for eNGOs The production of food has environmental impacts, there is no way around this. For food crops, like grains, vegetables or fruits, one has to disturb the natural environment in order to get from planting to harvest. One simply can’t walk into a naturally grassy area, stick Read more…